What a year 2023 has been, it feels like it was just yesterday, I received a DM via SoleSavy‘s slack that I should make time for a specific date which turned out to be an all-expense paid trip to Philadelphia to design my own pair of Dunks with Garrixon Studio‘s team. That’s not an opportunity you get every day.
The initial plan was to use the Air Max 1 as a base for our design. My immediate idea was to create something related to my Khmer/Southeast Asian heritage and my love for food.
Why Mango Sticky Rice?
Mango Sticky Rice first came to mind. It’s one of my most favourite desserts and dishes that my mom makes. It’s sweet (but not too sweet), it’s savoury, it’s fresh, and just so satisfying.
While this dessert is not exclusive to Cambodia, I feel it represents my Southeast Asian identity. Asian culture revolves very much around food and I wouldn’t have been true to myself if I didn’t make a food-themed design. This colourway is little tribute to my mom.
These were the mock-ups I came up with:
About a week before heading to Philadelphia, the studio informed us that the file with the Air Max 1 model panels were corrupted, so the back-up plan was to use the Nike Dunk silhouette. And with that in mind, I had to find a way to translate my idea created specifically for the Air Max 1 for this different model.
Once I got to Garrixon Studio, we learned how they design and build sneakers from scratch. We had the opportunity to browse their extensive material library. There were so many premium material I could only dream of ever touching. Having gone through almost every roll of leather, suede, animal prints, etc., I got to work and created the final version of the “Mango Sticky Rice” Dunks.
Materials
For the materials, I knew I wanted to use soft tumbled leather for the rice and suede for the mango texture.
As for colours, orange and yellow represent the mango and the different shades of ripeness.
Hits of green for the banana leaves that are often used in SE Asian culture as a plate or for presentation. It also represents mango leaves.
Creamy white for the coconut milk.
Brown on the back represents the mature coconut husks.
All sitting atop of gum outsoles that resemble a wooden plate.
I also created illustrations of a mango to be stitched on the back heel, as well as a plate of mango sticky rice printed on the insoles.
The Final Product
