eBay - Virtual ‘Santa Sneaker Drop’
In December 2020, eBay launched a unique four-day "Sneaker Drop" event, giving participants the chance to win one of 500 highly sought-after pairs of sneakers through an augmented reality experience. This virtual event provided a safe and engaging way for sneaker fans to join in on the excitement during the pandemic—a time when community connection was especially valuable. As sneaker drops have become ubiquitous in the ever-expanding sneaker industry, eBay, a long-standing platform for sneaker enthusiasts, sought to reinforce its position as a trusted leader in community, inventory, and authenticity. By harnessing the holiday season and leveraging technological innovation, eBay proved it could still deliver an unmatched experience for its passionate sneaker community.​
Anyone with an A/R-enabled phone could play. They simply visited eBay’s mobile site to enter the drop and chose a location for their virtual fireplace. It would build on their screen and receive a present down the chimney in the form of either coal or free sneakers. Players got up to five chances per day to play and eBay gave away over 500 shoes in just 3 days.
My Role:
I was contracted by Inphantry to lead the art development for the A/R portion of this high-profile project for eBay. This included creating optimized 3D models, textures, materials, animations, and handling in-engine integration. We used HLSL files to compact art assets efficiently, and 8th Wall powered the augmented reality functionality. Inphantry developed the custom backend that supported the Sneaker Drop, attracting millions of participants and driving substantial return visits.
On an extremely tight three-week timeline, the project advanced swiftly—from securing sponsorships to producing commercials and building the actual AR experience. Development was highly dynamic, with continuous art content refinement in response to evolving feedback and project requirements in real time.
Below, you can explore artwork and promotional videos produced by Edelman Advertising.
Check out Inphantry here: www.inphantry.com
3D Technical Buildup
Optimized 3D
The AR assets were delivered in a new GLSL file format, combining all 3D models, textures, and materials into a single, optimized file.
Leveraging 8th Wall’s engine, the project ran seamlessly on any mobile device without requiring users to install plugins—users simply opened their camera to dive in.
The assets were built using low-polygon meshes with high-polygon details baked into normal and ambient occlusion maps. For example, the sneaker model retained intricate detail from millions of polygons while keeping the mesh at just a few hundred polygons, achieving both visual fidelity and smooth AR performance.
Promotions
Spots courtesy of client: Edelman
eBay and NBA Star Anthony Davis.
The eBay Santa Sneaker Drop was a massive success across the board. There were over 2 million entries in just 72 hours. Nearly every person who entered used all 5 of their chances per day, showing sneakerheads were engaged and the experience was fun to play even after the first try.
On social, the positive outpouring was overwhelming with over 875,000 social engagements during the drop. Even those who didn't win commented on how much they loved playing the A/R game and interacting with a new style of drop.
The drop was a hit and was covered by outlets across the U.S., helping spread the word and accelerate the hype. Coverage ranged from publications targeted at the sneaker community like Sole Collector, Footwear News, Nice Kicks, and BroBible, to huge national players like Yahoo! Sports, ABC News, and Good Morning America. The coverage blanketed the internet like fresh Christmas snow generating over 2 billion earned impressions in just 3 days.
Most importantly, the Santa Sneaker Drop got the entire sneaker community talking about eBay again. It also got millions of Millennial and Gen Z sneakerheads seeing eBay in a new light and proclaiming that eBay had the biggest sneaker drop of the year.