Arguably the idea that kicked off the craze of brand sneaker collabs during the latter half of the 2010s and early 2020s, the Pie Tops were actually born from a very sound, strategic insight.

Pizza Hut wanted to promote their new, easy-to-order interface, and they wanted to do it during March Madness. Hence, basketball shoes with an easy-order button in the tongue.

We were adamant that the Pie Tops be done for real and be done right, so we spent weeks working with custom shoe legend The Shoe Surgeon and developing a dedicated app that connects the shoes to Pizza Hut's API via Bluetooth.

The full case study explains the whole campaign and its rollout:

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Below is the full launch spot, which debuted on March 1st, right at the height of March Madness hype.
The resulting PR shattered expectations. The Pie Tops were picked up by the likes of The Today Show, USA Today, NBC News, Huffington Post, TMZ, Today Australia, Hypebeast, and, for some reason, Cosmopolitan. We even inspired some fan art.

Mark Cuban liked them so much he agreed to rock a pair.

YouTube legend Unbox Therapy got a pair and did an awesome walkthrough of every detail.