Montreal-founded footwear retailer Little Burgundy has made a major national play this month through a partnership with Converse and one of the hottest rock bands in Canada.

Little Burgundy collaborated with Converse to promote its Run Star Trainer shoes through the “Rock the Star” campaign, and to appeal to Millennial and Gen Z consumers, the retailer has struck a partnership with Toronto-based band The Beaches. 

The online campaign is centered around footage from a four-song live performance The Beaches played at Toronto skateboard and coffee shop Brockton Haunt, where the band sported looks styled with the shoes. A full-length music video was also captured for the band’s track “Everything is Boring,” that includes behind-the-scenes footage from the gig.

Working with The Beaches to promote Converse shoes extends Little Burgundy’s reach in Canada, says the brand’s VP of marketing and ecommerce Audrey Gauthier. While it’s already well-known in Montreal, the new creative and partnership gives Little Burgundy more appeal across the country, and allowed it to activate in Toronto which Gauthier says is an important market for the company.

“Being able to tap into The Beaches’ audience allows us to potentially talk to new consumers who are devoted fans of the band and may convert to becoming fans of Little Burgundy as well,” Gauthier tells strategy.

She adds that The Beaches’ younger following of fans aligns it well with Converse, and that the band’s style captures the versatility that the brand is looking to convey with the different colours of the Run Star Trainer shoes. The campaign also includes limited-edition merchandise in fan giveaways featuring the set design, including a “Blame Chuck” T-shirt that riffs off of the bands’ hit song, “Blame Brett.”

The campaign comes after The Beaches released their sophomore album Blame My Ex in September. The acclaimed album picked up a Juno Award for Rock Album of the Year, earlier this year, and has also been shortlisted for the prestigious Polaris Music Prize, which celebrates the best Canadian album annually, based on artistic merit.

The agency behind the new campaign for Little Burgundy is Les Squeak. Its co-founder and creative director Laura Serra notes that as The Beaches often wear Converse on stage, the partnership was a seamless fit, with good timing after the strong year that the band has been experiencing.

“The Run Star Trainer is positioned as a boldly confident shoe, given its diverse colourways, and really plays into this idea of individuality,” Serra says.

Little Burgundy is running the campaign across digital and social media throughout July, with a paid social campaign on Instagram and YouTube. While Gauthier says that Little Burgundy typically works with smaller budgets on its seasonal campaigns, focusing more on conversion tactics, the brand invested in a paid digital and social campaign, targeting Gen Z and Millennial consumers through Meta and YouTube.