"This site does a great job addressing skate culture by creating an experience that's as colorful as it is engaging—and it's not without a sense of humor." —juror Jonathan Hills

"Quirky functionality." —juror Robert Hodgin

Overview: Designed expressly for skaters and sneakerheads, Nike Skateboarding allows its visitors to view and sort every skateboarding shoe ever released by the company. Additional interactive elements include photographic puppets of skateboard team members that come to life on rollovers.

• Hub for all marketing activities for the brand
• Sorting mechanisms for simplified navigation
• 20MB total file size with nearly 1,000 individual files

Comments by Tim Barber:
"The team at Nike SB is serious about bringing something authentic and innovative to skateboarding. We created their first site back in 2002 and it was a collaborative effort packed with lots of ideas, crazy animation and art.

"After two years of releasing successful products, Nike SB was fully on the map; they'd earned a respected spot in the industry and been so successful that they outgrew their first site.

"So we met, at their place in Oregon, to talk about a new site. Their space is hectic with shoes, decks, stickers, dolls, posters and all kinds of stuff they've made, are prototyping, or have simply collected. It reflects their desire to be thinking and planning the next big, unexpected move, and their new site had to be set up for these zigs and zags.

"Along with all the invention and change are a couple of constants—a solid team and classic skate shoes. We wanted to make it easier for sneakerheads and skaters to check out the shoes, see what the team is all about, and keep up with the latest news. So first, we built a shoe browser that brings the new and old colorways for every shoe together in one place where they can be sorted by style, color and release date. Then, we brought the SB team to life with interactive photographic puppets, each in its own environment. You can rollover their bodies, and they actually respond; if you do nothing, they rock poses on their own.

"The site also keeps up with real-world action: Nike SB fans get their fix each month with team rider news, photos and videos, and collectors and sneakerheads come back religiously to discover the newly released shoes (one rare style is given away every month).

"Finally, to reach the Nike SB crew overseas, the entire site is published in six languages."