London creative studio FLUORO has launched the campaign for MANNY ONE, the debut skate shoe from performance footwear brand R.A.D, created with professional skateboarder Manny Santiago.

The shoe marks R.A.D's first move into skate-wear. Santiago, the first Puerto Rican skateboarder to compete in the Street League Skateboarding premier competitive series, is widely considered a legend in the sport. The MANNY ONE embraces 1990s street style and is designed for longevity and the high impacts of skateboarding.

FLUORO's stated aim was to unlock the euphoria of skateboarding. The studio drew on nostalgia, grit and optimism to build a cohesive brand world spanning a launch film and a teaser campaign.

Launch film and teaser

Set in London, the film mixes real-life footage, animation and moving image. FLUORO describes it as an absurd take on an epic wipeout.

In the film, Santiago — known for his signature front-tooth gap — appears as a series of personas. He is manifested as an anime character, a plasticine figure, a game character, and finally his real self.

The accompanying teaser campaign features pixelated GIFs of the R.A.D logo and logotype, complete with go-faster stripes that reference the loading screens of classic Commodore video games.

Unpolished by design

The brand world is deliberately expansive. According to Tim Smith, founder of FLUORO and creative director of R.A.D, it incorporates "products, objects, ambitions, spaces, jokes, visuals, soundscapes, higher powers, metaphors, big picture, little picture, vibes, hidden messages, nostalgia, futurism, optimism, hope, a bit of darkness, and a bit of silliness."

For this campaign, FLUORO focused on how a brand should feel and the energy it permeates, treating grit and realism as a deliberate choice rather than a compromise. Smith notes that leaning into an unpolished style allows the team to embrace expression and intrigue, adding that "something less perfect feels more human" — a quality he frames as vital in an industry rife with overproduction and polish.

FLUORO's client roster includes Sky Sports and Sweaty Betty. The studio has worked with R.A.D since 2019 and previously created the brand identity and expression for the company's launch in Miami in 2022.

With MANNY ONE, the long-running partnership now extends from brand identity into product storytelling — positioning the unpolished aesthetic as R.A.D's ongoing answer to an over-slick category.