Unlaced
- Brand
- Dr. Martens
- Year
- 2020
- Objective
- Engagement
- Industry
- Fashion & Beauty
- Mechanic
- Quiz & Trivia
- Platform
- Web
- Agency
- Brewster Studio
Objective
For its 60th anniversary in 2020, Dr. Martens wanted more than a retrospective post — it wanted fans to walk through the brand's history themselves. The brief, in the brand's own words, was 'How well do you know your DM's? Celebrate six decades of Dr. Martens with a tour of our rebellious history,' with real product on the line to give the trip a payoff.
Solution
Unlaced opens onto an illustrated, hand-drawn world split into six scenes, one per decade of Dr. Martens history. Players scroll through each parallax scene point-and-click style, clicking on objects to dig up hidden clues — 60 in all, each a snippet of brand lore — with hovering over items triggering little sound cues along the way; on desktop, flicking on an 'amplifier' lets players listen to a Dr. Martens playlist from Mixcloud while they search. A quiz is accessible at any point: five questions drawn at random from a pool of 60, getting harder as players answer more. Players who track down every clue and clear the quiz go into the running for actual Dr. Martens product (EU residents only).
- 1
The game opens as a standalone site with a direct challenge to the player: test how well they know Dr. Martens by touring six decades of the brand's history.
- 2
Players explore a hand-illustrated scene with simple point-and-click controls, moving the cursor across the artwork. The illustration responds to movement with parallax, its layers shifting at different depths and speeds, and hovering over certain objects triggers sound effects.
- 3
The scene is divided into six sections, each representing one decade of Dr. Martens' history.
- 4
On desktop, players can switch on an in-scene amp to play a Dr. Martens playlist from Mixcloud as background music while they explore.
- 5
The core objective is to find 60 clues hidden throughout the scene; each clue reveals a piece of the brand's history.
- 6
A quiz is accessible at any point in the session, not just after full exploration. It draws random questions from the pool of 60, running from two easy questions through two medium ones to a final hard question.
- 7
Players who locate all 60 clues qualify for a reward: the first 60 to do so receive Dr. Martens product, with the offer limited to EU residents.
- 8
On mobile, the experience is scaled down, with reduced animation and parallax compared to the full desktop version.
