Astral’s Head of Brand + Marketing, Cooper Lambla, reflects on the principle of Trust Nature + the creation of the complex and trippy Trust Nature video.
52 weeks ago, one of my best friends, Will Stubblefield, and I set off down the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River in a two person whitewater kayak. It was one of the most remarkable experiences I’ve ever had on a river.
First, there’s the shared experience of paddling a two person kayak. In a single kayak, while a group works as a team to navigate the river, each individual has a unique experience in their own craft. While one person may have a smooth line through a big rapid, another may flip over, experiencing completely different sensations. With a two person craft, you experience almost the exact same thing. (Almost, because the person in the front has a much more intimate experience with the waves, holes and features of the river.) Additionally, the two person kayak allows you to ‘sync’ your paddle strokes, weight distribution and entire body movements with the other person in your craft. Once locked in, this melding of movements is an incredible harmony to experience….like musicians playing in an ensemble, or dancers performing together. Truly shared moments of synchronized flow state are hard to beat. Along with the completely focused and present experience of flow state, you simultaneously experience the feeling of being a part of something beyond yourself. Both sensations can be things people work their entire lives to experience, so to feel both, at once is truly remarkable.
Any prolonged experience in a two person kayak ultimately also leads to some quality conversation. You catch up on life, relationships, goals, philosophies, etc. On this particular five day trip, Will began asking me about work. A couple years prior, I had begun working with the alternative outdoor brand, Astral. Will had noticed us beginning to use the phrase ‘Trust Nature’ in our marketing and as a slogan on our products. He asked where the phrase came from and what its relationship was with responsibility within the outdoors. I attempted to answer his questions with an explanation of how our intention is to articulate that we trust Nature’s materials, designs and epic flow state experiences (like the one we were sharing down the Grand Canyon).
As we paddled through one of Nature’s most majestic cathedrals (Nature is a trustworthy architect too!) I realized that for him to fully understand what I was talking about, we’d need to show it. As the miles flew by, so did my thoughts. As faces and vibrant visuals appeared within the Canyon walls, so too did a moving collage that showed what trusting Nature looks like. After we got off the river, I began to write down what I had seen and what had formed in my head. Words weren’t enough. I began to make collages, and collect sources inspiration (shout out A$AP Rocky and Nightmares on Wax) and collect footage from the wide array of Astral athletes out trusting Nature in Astral gear.
Next, I phoned up the one person I knew who could potentially pull off the trippy visualsI had in mind. Tyler Allyn and I have worked together on many a project. Whether it’s organizing a vacation to south central Siberia, testing the limits of our bodies and mind under the full moon or making short motion pictures, Tyler’s simply a brother from anotha motha who I trust. To understand more about why he was the man for this job, here’s how he describes himself…
“I don’t like cheese, crowded places, or social media, but I do like problem solving. Since things rarely go as planned during any sort of production, I have discovered an unexpected interest in filmmaking. Without any formal training in the photo or video world, I have had to rely on my background in Mathematics to navigate through the intricate challenges that inevitably arise during a production.
My master’s thesis explored diagrammatically reducible two complexes, and while the technical field of Algebraic Topology might seem completely disconnected from the artistic fields of photography and filmmaking, there are some shared fundamental principles.“
(He’s also a hip hop music video connoisseur.)
Long story short, I called Tyler up and shared seven collages I’d made to portray the vision of each scene of the film. Accompanied by soundbites from Astral’s Founder + CEO, Philip Curry, these buoyant nuggets of Astralverse philosophy simultaneously shared past discoveries and roots of the company with the vision and direction of the brand’s trajectory.
After the better part of a year creating fictitious worlds out of community-sourced footage and flying the digital video editor’s version of a FPV drone through them each time an edit was made, Tyler admitted. ‘I’ve really sandbagged myself this time.’
A few weeks before launch Sora went live to the public [for the less tech-y among us, Sora is an AI model that has the ability to create complex scenes from text instructions]. Maybe that would’ve been helpful. Maybe it would’ve been a distraction.
We hope you enjoy the film. Inspired by lifetimes of epic flow state experiences, it’s the most complete version of Astral we’re able to portray. The founding vision and principles of the brand, allowing for a shared exploration of the buoyant world of Nature.
A unique and necessary way to tell the origin story of Astral’s truest belief…
Life is better when we Trust Nature.
In joy.