Designer Turns Nike Air Max Into a Fully Playable Super Nintendo Console
A Nike Air Max sneaker that doubles as a working Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) sounds like the stuff of retro-gaming fantasy — but one designer has turned it into reality.
To mark the 35th anniversary of the SNES’s launch in Japan, Singaporean designer Gustavo Bonzanini has engineered a fully functional SNES inside a customised pair of Nike Air Max 90s. Styled in the console’s classic grey-and-purple colour palette, the shoes blend ’90s nostalgia with modern ingenuity, transforming a familiar silhouette into a one-of-a-kind gaming device.
A tribute to one of gaming’s most iconic consoles
Launched in 1990 in Japan and a year later in North America, the Super Nintendo became one of the most influential consoles in gaming history. Its 16-bit processor allowed for richer graphics, better sound and more ambitious game design than its NES predecessor. Early hits such as Super Mario World, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Super Mario Kart helped cement the SNES as a defining cultural landmark.
Bonzanini’s creation celebrates that legacy — but getting an SNES to fit inside a pair of sneakers was far from straightforward.
How he built the “Air SNES”
“The challenge was figuring out how to fit the electronics of an SNES into a shoe,” Bonzanini told Engadget. Using original cartridges was impossible, so he turned to emulation. Inside the tongue of the sneaker, he installed a Raspberry Pi Zero W running RetroPie, allowing it to play classic SNES titles. A built-in battery provides around 30 minutes of gameplay.
To maintain the retro feel, he added a small analog converter that lets players connect the shoe to a television using RCA cables, via the Pi’s mini-HDMI output — paying homage to the SNES’s original video connections.
The modified console-shoe even supports authentic SNES controllers. Bonzanini adapted an original gamepad with an 8BitDo Bluetooth kit, enabling wireless play.
A one-off creation with no commercial release
Despite the attention the project has received, Bonzanini has no plans to sell the custom sneakers. The “Air SNES” remains a unique tribute piece created solely for the anniversary, sitting somewhere between art, nostalgia and engineering experiment.
Still, in an era filled with branded collaborations between gaming and sneaker companies, Bonzanini’s question captures the spark behind the project:
“If shoes can look like a video game, why can’t they actually be one?”
