Back in November 2024, JD Sports took an interest in parkour to promote their Technical Spring/Summer campaign. A few months later, we're now starting to see some of the results!
Several members of the performance team from the fantastic Street Monkeys Academy in Preston were enlisted for the shoot. It featured one of their home-grown prodigies, 16-year-old Liam Park, alongside the extremely experienced parkour athlete, Robbie Griffith from Glasgow.
Liam first joined the academy at only 6 years of age and has been with the Street Monkeys for a decade so far! He is a truly incredible example of the next generation of, not only parkour practitioners, but athletes looking to develop a career through the ever-growing parkour industry. He has quickly become known in the UK parkour community for his explosive flip-based style, often drawing comparisons between himself and one of the greatest parkour athletes in the world; Elis Torhall. We, at Parkour UK, are all very excited to see Liam’s progression over the next few years.
In addition to already being an incredible athlete and performer, Liam has embarked on his coaching journey with Street Monkeys. He currently working as an assistant with ambitions to become a head-coach one day. The student to coach pathway is an extremely important one in parkour, and one that the Street Monkeys have taken very seriously. This was demonstrated by their recent hosting of the Parkour UK level 1 coaching qualification, in which several of their new assistant coaches began their coaching qualification pathways.
Click here to see the Street Monkeys x JD Sports video!
Aside from Liam’s performance, members of the Street Monkeys team were responsible for all aspects of the shoot, from location sourcing to health and safety. It’s a refreshing change to see a corporation as large as JD Sports bring in a full team from the parkour industry to coordinate a successful shoot.
The one-day shoot, which took place at London’s iconic Barbican estate resulted in a fast-paced 30 second promotional video, and several photos which will be shown across socials and in stores around the country. So, keep an eye out next time you’re shopping, and you might just see some parkour from these boys!
.jpg)
.jpg)