Shot by photographer Mark Seliger, stills from the campaign also will run in a series of fashion and lifestyle magazines such as Vibe, Complex, Teen Vogue, Giant, XXL, Essence, Seventeen and Cookie. In addition, the ads will appear on billboards in urban areas nationwide. Consumers are encouraged to submit videos telling their stories of survival with the I Will Not Lose theme on the iwillnotlose.org site. Once submitted, viewers will vote for their favorite stories and two of the top-voted individuals will be featured in the spring-summer Rocawear campaign. Carter declined to reveal the budget for the campaign.

"I thought hard and dug deep before I got into telling my story of my challenges and struggles that I faced on my way to success," Ciara said of her participation in the campaign. "I really hope my story will be an inspiration to others."

Ciara said she also was pleased with the selection of Rocawear pieces on the set of the shoot.

"The clothes are much more mature," she said. "They did such a great job of revamping the women's line. There are a lot of cool pieces."

While Carter said the women's collection hasn't been completely revamped, he admitted the line has changed with the market. There are more high-end pieces, and while this customer still likes the Rocawear logo, Carter doesn't think it has to be done in the traditional way.

"When we started, we had success with the big Rocawear logo plastered across the chest," Carter said. "And sure, we could have continued doing that, since that was safe, but I knew that we had to try new things, take some chances and move in a new direction."

Julia Davidson, merchandise manager for drjays.com, said that Rocawear remains one of the top-selling labels.

"Rocawear is one of our top five brands in our men's, women's and kids' businesses," Davidson said. "The brand has seen tremendous growth in line with our overall site growth, which is approximately 70 percent. The addition of licensees such as footwear, [which is] a collaboration with Pro Keds; sunglasses; belts; bags, as well as the Sleep Sexy intimates line has really expanded and matured the collection."