By Ali Mikail
Thinking out of the norms of what society expects from you is key to instigate change, be it social, economic or cultural. When Kuwait-based sneakerheads Tareq (@kickstq ) and DT (@del.ten ) hosted their first popup event in SNKR store, the Avenues, they were merely testing the waters and seeing where it would take them as a creative entity. The event was a hit, and hundreds of people showed up.
Soon after, they hosted Kuwait’s very own Airmax day, a talk in a kindergarten class in UAS, an Adidas campaign, an event where they sold out their highly anticipated merch, and within a year they had hosted over six pop ups. That’s when Tareq and DT were motivated and knew they were really on to something special by creating out of the box experiences. From there, OTB was born.
TB, also known as “Out The Box” is a creative agency formed by influencers Tareq Qaddumi and DT based in Kuwait and founded in early 2019. OTB collectively includes artists, photographers, videographers, designers, and musicians all who are among a group of several other creatives with different goals and motives. Both Tareq and DT have a combined experience of ten years in brand marketing and consulting, working with companies such as Nike, Jordan Brand, Adidas, Puma, Prada, Cadillac, Farfetch, and Shopify. For Tareq, OTB was one of his biggest accomplishments ever since he started his journey on Instagram in 2014 when he was just posting his daily outfit pics ( #Outfitgrid ) featuring limited kicks from brands such as Jordans and Yeezys to now working with hungry young creators in an agency who are passionate and have an aspiring love for sneakers, just like him.
OTB is reinventing the traditional creative agency format, and presents a totally different operation that echoes with Tareq and DT’s passion for street and youth culture. There’s a ‘court’ team of 4-5 guys (artists, photographers, videographers, designers) depending on who is usually available, and the scope of the given project where others could also come in and play a role in helping the project come to life.
Currently OTB’s team includes Photographer and Videographer Sid Nath, Videographer and Graphic Designer Masood Bloushi, Engineer and Artist Dawood Al Awadh, Photographer and Artist Elvis D’Costa, and Interior Designer and Artist Mariam Al-Yoranee
The concept for OTB’s motto, “No Skill Set” comes from Tareq’s personal story where he never really had any specific skill and every project he has done and achieved comes within a vision and involves the right people for it. For the longest time, Tareq felt inadequate, constantly underestimating his self-worth until he realized you don’t need a specific skill to get far in life.
When Tareq gave his AUK talk about what “No Skill Set” is and what it really means, he was relaying an important message that really needed to be thought through and given serious consideration. A lot of young adults nowadays have yet to figure out what they would like to accomplish in their lives with the certain type of skills presented upon them, but feel worthless because they do not feel like they have the required skill to do so.
Whether he’s focusing on OTB or his latest collaboration, Tareq is always working on one creative project or the next. When considering his continued content series with OTB, titled the Hoop Series, it is driven by OTB’s passion for the game. The objective was to merge the sport with elements that relate to the culture and the personal stories of the agency. Balling has also always been a passion of Tareq’s ever since high school, and each one of the twelve hoops currently created has a different meaning and backstory too.
OTB introduced the first hoop which paid homage to Kuwait’s fishing culture and history with pearl diving, a tradition which people tend to forget about. Titled “All Net”, it features a basketball hoop strategically placed in the middle of the water. The hoop itself is created out of fisherman wood, net and designed basketballs that pose as oversized pearls to complete the image of this story.
Individually, Tareq considers “All Net” as a huge success. Not only was this his first hoop, but also placing the hoop on a small boat in the middle of the sea was technically extremely difficult for him to construct. But with the right mindset and people, Tareq was thrilled to see his vision materialize. Ever since that first hoop, OTB’s Hoop Series has featured over ten unique hoop concepts with amazing backstories to go along with each creation, covering themes like technology, cultural traditions, and awareness campaigns that touch on specific topics.
The most powerful project yet by OTB has to be the Slingshot, which is the most meaningful and profound project Tareq has worked on. Constructed as a massive structure and featuring incredible handmade, Palestinian embroidery, the project personally resounds with Tareq because of the cause. In a world where the concept of “free Palestine” has been muddled down to passing news on mainstream media, Tareq looked to create something that is the complete opposite, and deserving of attention.
He considers the slingshot not just to “free Palestine”, but as another way of saying that we need to fight evil since there is a lot of it in this world. He said, “Oppression is the enemy and fighting it can be formed in any way whether it’s boycotting, raising funds and awareness or creating a symbolic gesture”,with the creation of the biggest slingshot in the world.
A struggle for Tareq was that many viewed him as just the influencer who would only put outfits together and post cool pictures of sneakers. So when approaching companies and brands with his projects and ideas he found it rather difficult. He set out to prove that he can also offer services that would take everything to the next level, from creating a campaign, developing the key content like videos, pictures, styling, designing elements and much more with a wider variety of his resources on the line to make the project come to life.
That’s the beauty of collective creativity at OTB, the sky’s the limit for what you can deliver, and Tareq knew that there was a clear gap in the market for creative offerings like those offered at OTB. Tareq is always working and planning on new upcoming collaborations, as he currently has four big projects planned out on ice and is very excited to tease to the public whenever the time is right. He works on ideas that are way out of his element to elevate every day experiences, and hopefully, within a couple months of time, we are going to see more fascinating events hosted by OTB.
For more information, check out @Kickstq and @outtheboxww on Instagram and visit the website outtheboxww.com.
