The Runbird, one uninterrupted stroke on Mizuno blueThe challenge
Mizuno makes some of the most respected running and volleyball equipment in the world and sells it with the visual language of a 2007 catalogue. The craft was real; the storytelling was not. Younger runners knew the shoe and not the 120 years behind it.
The solution
We reduced everything to the stroke. The Runbird is redrawn as one uninterrupted movement — the same principle that governs the typography, the photography and the way product is shot. Vermilion appears once per layout, never twice. The restraint is the argument: this is a brand that has been doing one thing for a very long time.
The manual argues the stroke before it shows product.
Commerce reduced to one product and one rule.
Restraint carried on the garment, one mark only.
Vermilion appears once and the garment does the rest.
The singlet as specimen, one stroke across the chest.
The label carries the year, set vertically.
Ink and fold, read at the angle of the light.
One stroke, bonded, at the scale of the weave.
The other 120-year discipline, same single stroke.Project Information
Mizuno's problem was not credibility. Ask any serious runner and the product reputation is intact. The problem was that nothing in the brand communicated the 120 years of obsession behind it.
The company had been competing on the terms of much younger brands — hype drops, athlete campaigns, seasonal colourways — and losing, because that game rewards volume and Mizuno's asset is patience.
We reduced everything to a single principle: one stroke. The Runbird was redrawn as one uninterrupted movement, the confidence of a brush mark rather than a constructed logo.
That principle then governs everything else. One accent per layout. One subject per frame. One idea per piece of communication. Vermilion appears exactly once and never twice, which makes its appearance an event.
The restraint is the argument. A brand that has done one thing for 120 years should not communicate like one that started last season.
CAIO BARRETO
Creative Direction:
Caio Barreto
Design:
Júlia Bertoldi, Nara Vasconcelos, Kwame Osei, Marina Yuki
Motion Design:
Rafael Duarte, Ingrid Sollberg
Interactive Design:
Caio Bastos, Elif Demir
Strategy & Copywriting:
Priya Raghunathan, No Alves
Project Management:
Helena Braga
Account Direction:
Diego Fontenelle
Operations:
Sofia Krammer
Image Direction:
Yuri Kagawa
Typography:
Júlia Bertoldi
Fonts:
Tazugane Gothic, Söhne — Monotype / Klim Type Foundry
Year:
2026
Brand Identity · Concept
Self-initiated concept work. Mizuno is not a client of CAIO BARRETO. Imagery generated, not photographed.