介绍:
Wang started customizing sneakers in 2012 and began turning them into masks in early 2014. Since starting the project in early 2014, Wang has produced almost 20 unique masks. Each takes between two and five days to hand-sew.
When Wang Zhijun received his pair of limited edition Adidas Yeezy Boost 350 V2s in the mail from Chile, he didn’t try them on. Nor did he keep the RMB5,000 sneakers safe in their box. Instead, the 34-year-old Beijinger sliced the shoes apart and sewed the pieces into a pollution mask.
Sneakers’ insoles, laces and tongues can all be used, and running shoes generally work best (“high-tops are too big”). Each design is unique and Wang doesn’t even sketch out his ideas before dismembering a pair of – sometimes very expensive – shoes.
Wang says “More and more people care about their health and are using masks in their daily lives,”, “When I worked at an international advertising company, I noticed that my foreign colleagues cared more about their health than my Chinese colleagues. That made me re-think my life. I wanted to be different from my parents, my relatives and even my neighbors.”
“Maybe everyone hates the pollution outside but they can’t all shout about it,” he explains. “I want others to be aware of environmental change. I try to suggest to – not persuade – people that they can control what they do to other people, the environment and even to the next generation. We have to face the changes happening in our city, our environment, our air, our situation.”
“The masks are not normally for sale, they’re just ideas and collaborations,” Wang explains. “I make them to show people that they can change their thinking – and make creative things from basic stuff around them.
“You can easily get these materials from a market or sneaker shop. Then you can combine it with your own ideas to create new possibilities. What I want to do is tell people that everyone can change their lives – their boring lives – from right now.”
But the designs have been attracting global attention. Earlier this year, one of Wang’s products featured on the front cover of French magazine Shoes Up, and he recently collaborated with Puma on a global campaign (the brand now offers him “product support” – in other words, they send him free sneakers to dissect).
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