Sneaker | Art

In an age of transnational manufacturing, congenital designs within Asian manufacturing powerhouses like China have historically offered idiosyncratic takes on foreign things. By dissecting the physical detail of foreign designs and newly assigning them in a style reflective of a different culture, the process of reappropriation is complete. Chinese shoe company Feiyue is an apt example. It has been a footwear staple in China for generations, accoutering all classes in much the same way that Converse has achieved equal success in the west. Fundamentally, they are the same shoe but are alien to one another due to their cultural manifestations. These differences are best illustrated by the work of artist ZXEROKOOL. The ‘Golden Star Destroyer’ is an embodiment of the unyielding spirit of Chinese ambition coupled with a sense of forward flying contemporary ideas courtesy of its pilot Evel Knievel, a bastion of stunt culture and risk taking. The result is a cultural mashup illustrating the strength of cultural difference within a universal shoe design available the world over.