Outdoor Afro X REI CO-OP Spot Celebrates the Nature in All of Us

Outdoor Afro x REI CO-OP has launched a social media spot directed by Nate Edwards aka Nate the Director from Invisible Collective. The sun-soaked 'We Are Nature' campaign film inspires Black connections and leadership and celebrates the launch of the co-created technical hike apparel collection. 

On capturing the glorious exuberance of connecting with nature on video, Nate the Director commented: “The rhythm of the piece was big for me, making sure we could have those valleys and peaks within the flow and pacing was important, and we had the tools to showcase that. Nature has its own sense of peacefulness and high energy, so we put our talent in situations within nature that could provide us with those opportunities."

The campaign's photography was captured by Joshua Kissi and Fela Raymond from TONL, a creative company seeking to transform the idea of stock photography with diverse representation, and film content was created with Nate the Director from Invisible Collective and Maya Table from Curator.  The seamless collaboration between the film and photography crews comes through in feel-good radiance of the piece: this is the real idyll, the right people, the right gear, and the right atmosphere. 

“I always love the collaboration that working alongside photography crews on a project offers. Especially when I have the opportunity to work with the amazing Joshua Kissi and team!” said Nate. “There’s a beautiful synergy that comes, you get to see an artist capture the same talent in the same environment in an entirely different way and it inspires creativity on the spot. Both sides are able to push each other in that way.”