Ope x Grown: A Commanding Capsule Collection

How we partnered with a local outdoor brand to design a collection that invited consumers to get offline and come outside.

Challenge

In the era of smartphones and headsets, how can we remind people to spend time outside, preferably together?

Insight

Ope Outdoors is all about getting people outside in the Midwest. Grown is all about blooming where we’re planted.

Solution

Launch a co-branded collection that acts like a campaign and doubles as a call to action.

We didn’t invent the phrase, but we embrace it fully.

“Touch Grass” is a collection and a command. It’s a challenge to shut your laptop, put down your phone, turn off your TV, and go outside. Anywhere. The back yard. The front stoop. The local park. The skate park! Even the median counts. This playful but prodding mandate to get offline and outdoors felt like the perfect rallying cry for Ope’s first co-branded capsule collection.

An outdoor brand that defies stereotype

When Juno Musonda founded Ope Outdoors, he hoped to make the outdoor lifestyle more inclusive and accessible. In addition to merchandise inspired by local parks, Juno also organizes group hikes, farm visits, float trips, and other outdoor events designed to make the natural world feel like the natural place to be.

As a brand named for and inspired by nature, it felt right to collaborate on a collection that celebrates Midwestern landscapes — both grand and mundane.

What’s with the cicadas?

It was the summer of 2024, when not one but two species of cicada awoke from their extended slumber to scream and f*ck. Nowhere was this phenomenon louder or more apparent than in the Midwest, so we felt compelled to enshrine it in T-shirt form.