What You Need to Know
Merrell launched It Starts Outside, its first global brand platform and creative expression, celebrating the outdoor footwear company’s 45th anniversary. The platform reframes the outdoors as an immediate and accessible catalyst for transformation rather than something extreme or aspirational. Global CMO Richard McLeod said It Starts Outside guides how Merrell designs products, shapes culture and empowers the next generation of outdoor creators. The belief is that even a few steps outdoors can shift how people think, feel and move.
The campaign launches with a global brand film created with Uncommon Creative Studio that captures the physiological and emotional shift from inside to outside. Three short vignettes explore ways people experience the outdoors today, featuring Merrell athlete and Olympian Alexi Pappas hiking with visually impaired marathon runner Lisa Thompson. Merrell also announced Merrell Outside Futures Project, developed with the Virgil Abloh Post-Modern Scholarship Fund and Pensole Lewis College of Business and Design. The program expands access for aspiring designers through creative curriculum and impact apprenticeships inside Merrell’s design studio. The campaign rolls out globally in March 2026 across social, digital and connected TV.
