One of the first Nintendo consoles I ever played was the SNES (Super Nintendo Entertainment System). Although I didn't play it as much as I did the GameCube or the Wii, I still remember spending countless hours playing Super Mario World and Donkey Kong Country on it. Thanks to Nintendo Switch Online, revisiting those games has become much easier today. However, one thought that probably never crossed your mind is whether you could play SNES games not on your Switch but on your shoe.
Now, because of the size of the electronics inside the SNES and its wide cartridges, shrinking it down to the size of a shoe wasn't really feasible, so Bonzanini decided to go the emulation route and use a Raspberry Pi Zero W running the RetroPie emulator, which fit snugly inside the shoe's tongue. It even has a built-in battery with enough capacity for 30 minutes of gameplay.
"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 AIR SNES works with RCA cables
Unfortunately, you won't be able to buy them, as it's a one-off project
Credit: Gustavo Bonzanini
Of course, to play any games from the Air SNES on a TV, Bonzanini also had to include video outputs in the design. The Raspberry Pi Zero W has a mini-HDMI port, but to make sure the shoes pay a proper homage to the 90s era they're from, Bonzanini also added a small analog converter to the top of the tongue of the AIR SNES so it could connect to a TV using RCA cables.
The AIR SNES is compatible with the original SNES gamepad, but to keep things more cable-free, Bonzanini modded the controller with an 8BitDo Mod Kit so it can connect wirelessly to the Raspberry Pi via Bluetooth.
Unfortunately, if you want to get your hands on a pair of AIR SNES sneakers, you won't be able to, as Bonzanini made them as a one-off creation for the SNES's 35th anniversary, and there aren't any plans to mass-produce them.
"This art project was my way of celebrating both and pushing the idea of what sneaker culture and tech can become when they merge," Bonzanini explained (via Engadget).
It's worth noting that the SNES originally launched in Japan as the Super Famicom in 1990, featuring a different light gray color scheme and no purple. When it debuted in North America in 1991, it adopted the classic light gray and purple design most people remember, which the AIR SNES is based on.
While I'm sad I won't be able to get a pair of AIR SNES myself, it's still really cool to see the thought and effort that Bonzanini put into making these. I'd never even thought of carrying a console around in my shoe before, but now that it has been done, I won't be surprised if we see more people start modding shoes with retro consoles. Perhaps a pair of shoes that can run Doom will be next?
