adidas Treadmill Vending Machine
Before interactive vending machines became a marketing staple across the Middle East, there was this. A machine that didn't take cash — it took effort. Run hard enough, and it dispensed Boost shoes. The region's first interactive vending machine activation, built by Pixel Plus Media in 2013.
- Hardware Engineering
- Experience Design
- Fabrication
- Retail Activation
- Custom Vending Machine Hardware
- Treadmill Calorie Measurement System
- Embedded Control System
- Automated Dispensing Mechanism
Adidas
3 weeks
2013
01 / Challenge
Launch a performance shoe in a nation of couch potatoes.
The UAE ranked as the sixth laziest country in the world. In a culture built around comfort, with little exercise heritage, Adidas needed to launch Boost — a running shoe engineered around a revolutionary energy-return compound. The challenge wasn't just product awareness. It was making a technical performance story feel urgent and exciting to an audience that wasn't yet running.
02 / Idea
Don't sell the shoe. Make people earn it.
We built the Middle East's first interactive vending machine — one that used energy as currency. No cash, no loyalty points, no QR codes. Just a treadmill, a calorie tracker, and a simple proposition: run hard enough, and the machine rewards you. The harder you run, the better the prize. The perfect product demo for a shoe built on energy return — you had to generate energy to get it.
03 / Execution
Custom hardware. Live energy tracking. Real rewards.
PXL+ designed and fabricated the entire machine from scratch — integrating a commercial-grade treadmill with a custom calorie-measurement system, live display interface, and an automated dispensing mechanism. The machine tracked joules generated in real time and dispensed tiered rewards based on performance: energy drinks and snacks for casual runners, Adidas running gear for the committed, and a pair of Boost shoes for the fastest. The machine ran reliably across a sustained campaign period, handling hundreds of participants daily without failure — a first for the region, and a format that has since been replicated countless times across the Middle East.
04 / Results
Sold out in four weeks. Brought back for the Dubai Marathon.
926 runners participated in two weeks — 54% above expectations. Boost shoes sold out across the UAE within four weeks, achieving a 100% sell-through rate. Boost's share of the Adidas running category more than doubled to 11%. The earned media value reached $565,000 — over 3× the campaign investment. Adidas brought the machine back for the Dubai Marathon 2014.
Results
Numbers that speak volumes.
Next Step
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