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Nike Salutes Rayssa Leal, Who's Enjoyed a Fairy-Tale Olympics

Meet the skateboarding fairy

by Angela Natividad

July 29, 2021

12:00 pm

5 min read

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For Nike’s Fairies collection, Wieden + Kennedy São Paulo enlisted Brazilian teenage skater pro Rayssa Leal to star in the brand’s “New Fairies.”

The 90-second spot is backed by Lily James’s “A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes” from Disney’s Cinderella, released in 1950. The animation style from that film is also lifted to bring a bit of magic to Rayssa’s urban skating experience. She glides peacefully through the city streets, every nook and cranny available to her, with cartoon wings on her back and cartoon animals flocking to meet her.

In one instance, graffiti on a wall boldly reads, “Fairies do exist.”

Video Reference

Jul 29 2021 – 7:47am

Tim Nudd

Video file

Poster Reference

Nike | New Fairies

This is a departure from typical skater-focused work, which mostly features men and has an upbeat, counterculture energy. The latter vibe is still there, but only subtly so. This is more about the parts of a person’s inner world that spill out as you move through life, engaged in something you love and that loves you back.

“New Fairies” is part of Nike’s global “Play New” campaign, an invitation to discover sports in a different way. In this case, the goal is to make skateboarding feel more inclusive for women. But maybe the nicest thing about it is that the work doesn’t just diversify ideas about who skates; it broadens what skateboarding can be and feel like.

Leal, who is just 13 years old, is uniquely positioned to make the point. She is the youngest person to ever represent Brazil on the global sports stage for skateboarding, and was dubbed “the skateboarding fairy” after a video went viral on Vine in 2015 showing her landing a heelflip at 7 years old while dressed in a pixie outfit.

She also won the silver medal in street skating competition in Tokyo, becoming the youngest Olympic medalist in 85 years.

“I am very happy to inspire other girls to take up the sport. Skateboarding is a sport for women too; it’s for everyone,” she says. “I want other girls to have the same opportunity I had, to see their lives and their dreams fulfilled through the sport. We only need to believe in ourselves and in our potential.”

The work ends with that old Vine footage. At the time, that video likely already did much for bringing more girls to skating. In a way, “New Fairies” is a brand tribute to the path Leal started paving much earlier.

“Rayssa’s journey is an inspiration to all girls, all around the world. It shows that you can be a kid and believe in fairy tales, and at the same time be brave and go into areas that weren’t seen as spaces for girls,” says Gustavo Viana, marketing director at FISIA, Nike’s official distributor in Brazil. “Nike wants to promote the sport and show that everyone can practice it, regardless of gender. The intention of this sport is to bring people together.”

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