Wang Zhijun is a designer and artist from Beijing whose main medium is sneakers. A self-professed sneakerhead, Zhijun remembers his biggest dream as a kid was to create his own pair of beautiful sneakers. Since then, he started designing and modifying his favorite styles in his spare time. He has created custom editions of Nike Air Force 1’s, New Balances, Pumas, Asics, among many others, and works from time to time with brands to create unique sneaker designs.
生活在北京的王志钧，是一位以运动鞋为主要创作媒介的设计师、艺术家。自诩运动鞋狂热者的他，仍记得小时候最大的梦想就是能拥有一双自己设计的漂亮运动鞋。自那以后，志钧开始利用闲暇时间不停设计完善自己最喜欢的鞋款。他已经完成了Nike Air Force 1、New Balance、Puma、Asics等的定制鞋，也时常和品牌合作设计特别款。
His creations often look and feel as if they’ve just come straight out of the factory, even though they are 100% handmade by Zhijun. Working out of his apartment, he deconstructs, sews, paints, and assembles every piece by hand. The level of detail reveals the painstaking process of Wang’s craft that has been refined over the years, which involved learning how to sew and gaining a sense of intuition about materials and design.
他的作品看起来似乎是工厂直出产品，但事实上，它们全部由志钧全手工制作完成。拆卸、缝接、上色、组装，每一个步骤都是在他的住处手工完成。各种细节真实体现出他多年来手艺上的磨练、缝纫技术上的积累已经让他对选材和设计有了敏锐的直觉。
Growing up in Beijing as a child of the 80s, Zhijun is nostalgic for the memories of his youth in the capital city. With the rapid pace of city life today, he feels that “a lot of young Chinese people no longer have a sense of identity or have any idea of how generations before them used to live.” With this in mind, he often integrates Chinese elements and references to Beijing in his work. “I don’t want just to copy something that is Western, I want to express my own culture and where I’m from.” Using traditional sewing techniques and materials, his designs mix themes of pop culture and consumerism with Chinese cultural elements and motifs.
作为土生土长的北京80后，志钧深深怀念他儿时记忆中的那个首都。如今快节奏的城市生活，让他觉得“很多中国年轻人不再有身份认同感，也不知道他们的先辈们曾是如何生活”。于是他把中国和北京元素融合进他的作品。“我不想只是照搬西方的东西，我想表达自己的文化，自己的城市。通过传统的缝纫技巧和材料，他的运动鞋作品融合了流行文化和中国特色的消费主义。
In 2014, Zhijun stopped running, as pollution in the city got worse and worse. In thinking about how to express his frustration and reflect on these issues, however, he started disassembling sneakers and making face masks from them. The face masks have military-grade filters and are crafted from new, unworn sneakers.
2014年，随着北京的污染情况日渐恶化，志钧停止了跑步。他开始将运动鞋拆卸做成面罩，想着如何表达他对这些问题的沮丧和思考。这些面罩全都具有军事级别的滤器，由全新未穿着过的运动鞋改造而成。
Zhijun says, “A lot of people think, why would you waste a pair of expensive, highly sought-after sneakers and turn them into a mask? But I wanted to change the way that they are perceived, and give them more life and meaning rather than just as objects to buy and put on a shelf at home. I’m also someone who likes to go out and buy new things, but I still want to try to highlight these problems so that more young people think about them.”
志钧说，“很多人会觉得，你为什么要浪费一双昂贵又抢手的运动鞋，把它们变成面罩？但是我想改变人们对它们的看法，我要给它们更多的生命和意义，而不让它们只是一种买来摆放家中的物件。我绝对也算是有物质欲望的现代人，但是我仍然想要把这些问题体现出来，让更多的年轻人思考。”
Website: zhijunwang.com
Facebook: ~/zhijunwang
Instagram: @zhijunwang
Contributor, Videographer & Photographer: Jia Li
