Heetch rehung 300 basketball nets to bring Paris's silent courts back to life

Heetch, a ride-hailing app rooted in everyday mobility in these neighbourhoods, wanted a tangible act on the courts it drives past daily, following its 2023 'Proud sponsor de la banlieue' platform.

'Playground Reborn': 300 nets reinstalled by hand on public courts, with the game's return filmed not as spectacle but as 'urban music' — the net as the essential note.

Each net was installed by hand with local players and streetball figures — Lucie AGRAS, Salimata SYLLA, Rosenel CETOUT, Yoane LUYENGO, Khalil Coline — plus Malik Rouamba, Samuel Bringer, Themis Maleme and Ismael Kobe from Paris Basketball's U21 and U15 teams. A manifesto film by Victor Sellier at Soldats, shot across several Île-de-France neighbourhoods, captured the rebirth through bouncing balls, sliding sneakers and rising voices.

300 public courts got their nets back; the campaign cited studies showing a netted court attracts twice as many players. CMO Renaud Berthe framed it as being 'useful where it matters, where we are — it's tangible, just like our service'.

Across many neighbourhoods in Île-de-France, basketball courts are visible and present but silent — all they are missing is a net. In July 2025, ride-hailing app Heetch and BETC Paris launched 'Playground Reborn', reinstalling 300 nets on public courts to bring back the game, the passion and the life around it.

The logic was acoustic and social at once: studies cited by the campaign show a court with a net attracts twice as many players, and 'we didn't want to portray basketball as something flashy or spectacular, but as urban music', said BETC's Mathieu Laugier and Olivier Aumard — 'in that composition, the net is essential'. A manifesto film shot across the neighbourhoods captured the sounds of the game returning.

Each net went up by hand, in collaboration with the courts' regulars, streetball figures like Lucie AGRAS and Salimata SYLLA, and U21 and U15 players from Paris Basketball. For Heetch CMO Renaud Berthe, the fit was direct: 'We drive through these neighbourhoods every day. Acting on these courts means being useful where it matters, where we are.'

The act matches the brand's use case: Heetch drivers pass these courts daily, so a hyper-local fix reads as credible rather than borrowed.

A net costs almost nothing but changes whether a court sounds alive, making the impact legible in one image.

Installing with local players and streetball names kept the campaign of the playgrounds, not just about them.

The smallest missing piece of an experience can carry the whole campaign: fix one concrete thing people can hear — the swish of a net — and the brand's local claim proves itself.

As of the July 2025 write-up the 300 nets were up and the manifesto film was running; Heetch framed Playground Reborn as the next tangible chapter after its 2023 'Proud sponsor de la banlieue' platform.