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Designer turns Nike sneakers into a fully playable Super Nintendo console

Samira Vishwas | December 1, 2025 11:24 AM CST

Imagine Nike sneaker that lets you play Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) games, bringing all the fun and nostalgia that we associate with classic Nintendo consoles. Well, it’s now a reality.

For the 35th anniversary of the SNES launch in Japan, Singaporean designer Gustavo Bonzanini has managed to fit a playable Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) inside a pair of Nike Air Max 90 sneakers. The custom pair, heavily inspired by the ’90s aesthetic, features the iconic gray and purple colour scheme of the SNES. The best part? It doubles as a fully playable console, something unheard of, but now a reality.

Introduced in 1990 in Japan and 1991 in North America, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) became one of the most iconic consoles in history of video game console . The SNES was a follow-up to its hugely successful NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) and marked a milestone in technology and game design. It featured a 16-bit processor that allowed for better graphics, sound, and more complex games than its predecessor. The console was released with hit games from day-on including Super Mario World, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, and Super Mario Kart.

Nintendo’s proper follow-up to the NES was the Super Nintendo, which hit the US in 1991. (Image credit: Gustavo Bonzanini)

The challenge Bonzanini faced during the execution of this project was figuring out how to fit the electronics and cartridges of an SNES into a shoe. For example, using actual cartridges was out of the question. He came up with the idea of going the emulation route, using a Raspberry Pi Zero W running the RetroPie emulator, which fits snugly inside the shoe’s tongue. The designer even included a 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 told Engadget.

To allow Air SNES games to be played on a TV, Bonzanini included video outputs in the design. He added a small analog converter on the shoe’s tongue, enabling the Raspberry Pi Zero W’s mini-HDMI output to connect to a TV via RCA cables, staying true to the ’90s aesthetic.

The AIR SNES can work with the original SNES gamepad, but Bonzanini modified it with an 8BitDo kit to enable wireless Bluetooth play. However, the sneakers are a one-off creation for the SNES’s 35th anniversary, with no plans for mass production.