We created a four part documentary series to connect leica’s brand to the skateboarding culture.
We didn’t start with an idea for a film. We started by trying to understand the brand.
The Spark
In 2012 we were on the road for Pretty Sweet, the skateboard film directed by Spike Jonze and Ty Evans. Between sessions, pushing through city streets from one spot to the next, we kept noticing the same thing: skaters pulling a Leica M6 or M7 out of a bag or jacket pocket to document the trip. This was the essence of raw street photography at its core.
No one had asked them to carry it. They chose it. A Leica could take a beating on the road, and its simple, mechanical design stayed out of the way. It let them see the world the way skating had already taught them to: directly, and on their own terms.
The Insight
Hidden in plain sight was one of the most loyal communities a brand could hope for. Skateboarding has always produced its own documentarians, photographers and filmmakers who learned the craft by shooting their friends. For Leica, these creatives weren’t an audience to be won over. They were already believers.
The opportunity wasn’t to sell anyone on the camera. It was to tell the stories of the people who already lived with it.
The Approach
Before we pitched a single frame, we went deep into Leica’s history: a camera conceived to be small enough to carry anywhere, and the generations of photographers who used it to document the world around them. The more we learned, the clearer it became. The skaters we’d been traveling with were living the same story Leica had been telling for a century. They just hadn’t been asked to tell it yet.
We brought Leica a concept built on that connection: four short documentaries, four photographers who came up inside skateboarding, each tracing the path that led them from the board to behind the lens.
LEICA CAMERA LET US ROAM
LET US ROAM: FILM TRAILER
Let Us Roam caught fire in the world of photography shortly after the trailer’s release. It became Leica Camera’s single most successful content series, significantly growing the brand’s Instagram audience and its cultural following.
Instagram growth: From roughly 2,500–4,000 to more than 20,000 followers during the campaign · Views: More than 4 million across the series · Press: Outside, Hypebeast, The Berrics, Leica Rumors
Why It Matters to Us
Let Us Roam is the reason Una Más works the way it does. It taught us that the strongest brand work doesn’t begin with a creative idea. It begins with understanding: where a brand comes from, who already loves it, and the honest reasons why.
That’s the foundation of every partnership we take on. We build context first: we study the brand, find the people and stories already living inside it, and only then develop the creative. It worked for Leica in 2014. It’s how we’ve approached every brand since.
Here is the Four Part Series that started it all.
EPISODE 01 - RAY BARBEE
EPISODE 03 - ARTO SAARI
EPISODE 02 - GREG HUNT
EPISODE 04 - ATIBA JEFFERSON