In brief: It's been 35 years since the Super Nintendo – or Super Famicom, as it was called in the country – launched in Japan. To celebrate the anniversary, designer Gustavo Bonzanini has made a pair of wearable Nike sneakers that house a working retro console.
The AIR SNES sneakers are actually a customized version of the Nike Air Max 90. Like other gaming-themed shoes, their design reflects the subject's colors and stylings – though they're a lot more understated than similar gaming sneakers, thankfully.
Something that is unique in the AIR SNES is the sneakers' ability to double as a working console. Bonzanini hasn't squashed a chunky SNES into the shoe, obviously; instead, one of them has a hidden Raspberry Pi Zero W. Both the single board computer and its battery are stored in the tongue, rather than in the more obvious location of the sole.
The Zero W, one of the smallest Rapberry Pi models, uses a RetroPie emulator – also customized to match the sneaker – to play the 16-bit SNES games. The battery offers around 30 minutes of playtime.
You can connect the sneaker to a display using the Raspberry Pi W's integrated Mini HDMI port. But for that truly retro experience, Bonzanini has included a small analog converter so you can connect to TVs using old-school RCA cables.
The AIR SNES is compatible with the original SNES gamepad. To avoid getting tangled in wires, there's also the option to use an 8BitDo Mod Kit that connects to the Raspberry Pi wirelessly over Bluetooth.
"The idea came after looking at collaborations between sneaker brands and video games. I always asked myself: wouldn't it be cool if these shoes that look like a video game actually double as a console?" Bonzanini said in a press release.
The bad news is that the AIR SNES sneakers won't be available to buy. Bonzanini made them as a one-off creation and doesn't plan to sell them. However, one imagines that we'll see YouTube tech channels post step-by-step guides on how to create your own retro console/sneaker hybrids very soon.
The Super Famicom/SNES launched in 1990, selling 49.1 million units across its lifetime. It holds the number 16 spot on the list of best-selling game consoles, just below the Xbox One (58 million) and above the Nintendo 64 (32.9 million).
These wearable SNES-inspired Nike sneakers can play games from the classic console
