Encounters in Motion

PC: Adam John

When most brands drop new colorways, you see someone call them bold, fresh, edgy. But in Encounters, norda went deeper. And Adam John—credited with naming the campaign and crafting its story—pushed the idea that running is about meeting something: terrain, body, psyche. Something that disturbs your expectations so you see new lines in yourself.

He called the two 001 colorways Regolith and Mars—borrowing from space, borrowing from dust—and used those names not as aesthetic gimmicks, but as conceptual anchors. He said that runs are otherwordly moments disguised in earth, where your steps meet the infinite.

The campaign visuals reflect that: hazy, surreal, like you’re halfway between a desert trail and another planet.

What interests me is how this overlaps with running as identity work. You don’t just buy a shoe. You carry its mythology, your own stories, your rooms of meaning. A campaign like Encounters says a lot about how norda wants to be perceived—not just as “technical trail brand,” but as creative, emotional, forward‑leaning.

Adam is showing the path: brand, story, runner, design. If norda is going to lean into voices that carry narrative, you don’t just need people who run; you need people who translate what running means. This is that space.