Nike TN - Dragon from the Forbidden City
When I lived in New York, I used to have my sandals handmade by Barbara Shaum, an exceptionally talented woman who‘s sadly no longer with us. As someone who loves sneakers, I thought that maybe I could try to have custom made sneakers in Hong Kong instead — currently investigating vendors!
These sneakers are based on the Dragon motif with color palette from the Forbidden City. I was born in the year of Dragon, a mythological creature that’s not only associated with the Chinese Zodiac, but also used to be something associated with the emperor in ancient China — so I thought why not combine these two things.
I made these in Midjourney. Often, people would ask why not draw these or 3D model them — you’re mostly missing the point. The use of AI is to quickly realize concepts — to see if they could work. If they could work then you could tweak + finalize the design for production. If I were to do this from scratch and 3D model individual sneakers, then it would’ve taken days + months — time which I don’t have. If I were to hire a 3d modeling firm to do it, it would take so many revisions. Thus AI is an imagination machine that enable productivity in such way that most people probably didn’t realize.
A friend got me into Nike Air Max Plus TN sneakers recently, but I don’t like most of its styling, so I tried to imagine what I would design if it’s up to me.
I was born in the Year of Dragon. Besides being a Chinese Zodiac, the Chinese dragon is a mythological creature that was once reserved by the Emperor in Ancient China, so I thought it could be fun to create a series of Nike with patterns inspired by the traditional Chinese sculptures seen inside the Forbidden City, while having a color palette that‘s vibrant and exciting.
