Artist Gianluca Gimini Reinterprets Vintage Italian Brands As Sneakers

How do you preserve historical visual culture in an endless sea of new imagery? How can you interest newer generations in older design? Italian designer Gianluca Gimini believes the solution is footwear. Yes, you read that right: Gimini’s project Sneakered is an effort to preserve and promote Italian designs by transposing vintage product packaging onto contemporary shoes.

Nike Roshe Run sneakers become Pino Silvestre Roshe Runs, a male-targeted shampoo and perfume in a pinecone shaped bottle. Nike Uptempos become PIP Uptempos, a brand of licorice designed to mask smoker’s breath. A plethora of other shoe designs by the likes of Maison Margiela, Lacoste, and Adidas gain Tassani citrus soda, Cynar artichoke liquor, and Cielo Alto hair spray editions, precisely detailed to the point of looking like official, high quality commissions from these brands, which they surprisingly are not.

“This project is intended to be fun and entertaining, so if you don’t feel like reading the description you can just scroll down and you will for sure catch the sense of it just by looking at the pictures.

Recently I realized that many examples of exquisite Italian design are becoming terribly endangered, simply because they don’t have a market. I have found that, except for tin boxes and few other items, it is close to impossible to find specimens of vintage packages for supermarket goods, although there are examples of excellent design even among plastic soap bottles and candy wrappers.

What a pity it would be to lose memory of this great treasure! Most of today’s Italian 20-year-olds have probably never even seen these package designs before! My idea is that this project could help spread some awareness and appreciation for these dated designs.

To do so we enter a fictional world in which these brands (all of which in reality have a rather old and conservative target market) decide to boost their popularity among the young through a series of co-branded sneakers” she wrote.

More info: Gianluca Gimini, Behance (h/t: creators)