Hong Kong pop star, Mr Men and Little Miss all don Skechers

Mr. Men and Little Miss, popular children's-book characters licensed by Sanrio, will star in the brand's 'Let's go walk' campaign from 28 May to 21 June. The campaign features an OHH installment in the busy Admiralty MTR Station, where the station pillars will be wrapped with images of the characters travelling to Beijing, Japan, Paris, London, Italy and Sydney.

The campaign encourages commuters to take selfies and upload them to the brand's Instagram and Facebook. The 10 participants with the most likes will get a pair of the brand's Go Walk 2 shoes.

The campaign aims to attract not only kids but also young adults who are still into such cute characters, said Vincent Leung, senior VP of Skechers Hong Kong.

In recent years, many shoes brands have collaborated with different characters. “We had our first attempt last year with a small-scale collaboration with local designer Chocolate Rain," Leung said. "With its good feedback, we are happy to get the licence with Sanrio and do it with a much bigger scale this year.”

Meanwhile, Lam has joined as the company's first male brand ambassador in Hong Kong. Skechers, which entered Hong Kong in 2008 and has more than 30 stores, has used a number of female celebrities including Sammie Cheng as ambassadors.

“The sales of our female shoes are doing well, and it’s time for us to market a bit more for our men's shoe collection, especially the performing running collection,” Leung said.

Lam is a good fit because he knows the brand well from growing up in the US, is an athlete (he runs and teaches yoga) and, as a young singer, has a strong female fan base.

A relatively young brand, Skechers started 22 years ago in USA. Leung said the brand does not have the huge marketing budgets of other sportswear brands. “We need to work within our limited marketing resources to do something creative to get our brand exposure and return on investment,” he said.

Leung said Skechers is focusing more on performance. For example, the brand scored a major win when 39-year-old American Mebrahtom "Meb" Keflezighi won the recent Boston Marathon in a surprise result while wearing Skechers; before him, no American had won the iconic race since 1982.

As the ‘Korea wave’ is so prevalent in culture, Leung also revealed that Skechers is debuting a new line of running sportswear designed by its Korean team. The clothing will be available in late May in Hong Kong, to inject some ‘Korean hype design elements’ to the brand.