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Zack Teachout of Hovercraft: Bad Ideas Can Serve the Greater Good
Experiential world-building broadens brand horizons
Zack is a founding partner of Hovercraft, part of Hovercraft Ventures, which seeks to reimagine how people experience brands. Hovercraft has worked with Coinbase, Converse, EA Sports, H&M, Jordan, Nike, Bounty and more.
We spent two minutes with Zack to learn more about his background, his creative inspirations and recent work he’s admired.
Zack, tell us …
Where you grew up, and where you live now.
I grew up in New England and have been West Coasting it in Oregon for 16 years.
How you first realized you were creative.
It really clicked for me in high school. I took an art class elective and discovered painting and pencil drawing was a hidden talent. I vividly remember pretending to go to bed. And after my parents went to sleep, I stayed up until 4 a.m. drawing a realistic pencil portrait of Snoop Dogg on my floor.
A moment from high school or college that changed your life.
I was politely asked to leave the Pratt Institute two years into studying architecture. But that unlocked a drive that still pushes me to this day. I jumped right into working in architecture with a bit of a white-lie resume stating I wanted to experience the industry before finishing my degree. I was fortunate enough to land at a firm in Boston that was design-focused doing international work, while most of my friends were investing several years in a degree that most don’t use to this day.
Your most important creative inspirations and some recent work you love.
Art, architecture, graphic design, action sports, basketball and the outdoors are all pieces to the inspiration puzzle that keep me creatively charged. I visited the new Meta store on Melrose in L.A. Putting Meta and skate culture in the same sentence was something I expected to roll my eyes at, because frankly, you should. But I didn’t. It was purposeful, very intelligently done and nothing felt forced. The mix played out perfectly with interactive and immersive experiences. A classic “don’t judge a book by its cover” moment.
One of your favorite creative projects you’ve ever worked on.
A Nike Basketball project to launch Ja Morant’s first signature during the NBA All Star weekend when Salt Lake City was the host. It was post-Pandemic, so not much had been happening in the world of activation and retail experience for a couple years. Longtime client and collaborator (now teammate) Noah Wilson brought us the project. The brief was wide open. There was no campaign, just an athlete, a shoe and a location. We designed a pop-up retail interior built entirely out of sculpted ice with a massive snow sculpture outside and dropped it in the middle of the city. We did the supporting graphic work and an apparel capsule collection. It was everywhere in pop culture at the moment, still gets referenced and really marked that brand activation work was back. Great team effort, and shout out to Sharon Feinblatt for producing the work from the Nike side.
Someone else’s work you admired lately.
An individual, Victor Solomon, has been fun to watch from his first artworks to reimagining NBA trophies and rings, and even his very recent Nike collaboration—the Foamposite—feels like a complete reinvention, footwear as sculpture. For a studio, Brinkworth continues to impress with their retail work.
Your main strength as a creative person.
Quick thinking and not being afraid of sharing a bad idea in our team setting. We’re in a position to land one great idea per project. And time and time again, it’s proven that the lesser ideas help form the final campaign. Bad ideas can serve the greater good.
Your biggest weakness.
Editing. I get excited about everything, and have come to accept my biggest life challenge will be continuing to learn purposeful restraint and editing. It applies to my work, words and hobbies. Less can be, and often is, more. I need to embrace that more to become a strength instead of a constant hurdle.
A mentor who helped you navigate the industry.
Tarek Hassan, founder of Concepts, which is one of the most influential sneaker and culture stores ever. He ultimately opened the door and invited me into his world, which exposed me to this industry in my mid-twenties. He invited me into the design process and I took the latest Nike SB drops and occasionally a little cash in trade. That led me to exit formal architecture and join a small creative studio doing retail, trade show and graphic work. That studio, Soldier Design, was run by Bobby Riley, who was tight with Tarek and had been involved in Concepts from the start. Bobby had done a stretch at Burton prior to starting Soldier, so they had a lot of snow sports work. As a snowboarder, I was into it. That’s what opened the door into the world I’ve now spent the majority of my life invested in.
What you’d be doing if you weren’t in advertising.
I want to say I’d still be in architecture designing large scale buildings. But I’m sure I would have become bored with the drawn-out process and rigidity of the industry. I would have ended up doing something else with more action and unpredictability.
2 Minutes With is our regular interview series where we chat with creatives about their backgrounds, creative inspirations, work they admire and more. For more about 2 Minutes With, or to be considered for the series, please get in touch.
