Fresh from a recent project where he put a set of speakers into a pair of regular size trainers, we were so struck by the simplicity of the idea, we immediately commissioned Nash to create another set for our office. As is the way with these things, the idea was tossed around and then Nash retired to think for a day, before coming back to us with a plan. A way better plan. What if we made a set of speakers using the giant PUMA Suedes. And most magnificently, what if we made a set for Sneaker Freaker and a complementary set for a music artist... someone we know and love, someone who would be worthy of such a vestal gift bestowed upon them? Now who would that be?
High fives gave way to sober negotiation. Convinced we had THE higher calling on our side, we never deviated from our righteous path to DOOM’s door. Then lady luck delivered the hip hop immortal right to us – out of the blue he arrived in our hometown for a clutch of live shows. Thanks to friendly management, we learned he’s a huge PUMA fan and a mad villian for electronic boffinry. The game was on!
The first step was to design the Sneaker Speakers to El Doom’s esteemed taste. Our enquiries revealed the following characteristics are to his particular liking...
- red LEDs, gems and rubies
- sci-fi and laser guns
- mad villian shit!
- comics and chrome
- gothic shit!
- def hard metal - not timber!
- modern architecture and geometry
- gadgets and metal shit!
- mad exclamation marks!
All of this, we anticipated. One-upping DOOM’s alter ego and his heavy metal mask was key to making the speakers rock hard. With a brief tucked under his arm, Nash locked himself in the studio, only emerging every 20 hours or so to refuel on toxic Turkish coffee, Cheetos and the odd jazz cigarette. Strangely this exotic diet seemed to inspire Nash to even more extreme acts of DOOMishness. Once complete, the design can clearly be considered a proper colab and Nash’s greatest feat of creative endurance. There is DOOM in every pore of this sonic masterpiece.
Normally you might expect such an act of artistic genius (and we don’t use the term lightly) to evolve over several months of intellectual finagling. In this case, Nash had deadline instructions issued by Sneaker Freaker’s impatient Editor to be no later than “several weeks, but probably less than that because we’re in a hurry.” Pfft! They say planning makes things perfect, but even a minute to think was a luxury Nash could barely afford. Like two and a half men possessed, he tore into the project like Charles Sheen at a Warner Bros. xmas party. Napkins were used to sketch elaborate boomboxes, lighting and sound modules were deconstructed into bite-size pieces and Skype calls were made to obscure electronics suppliers in four different countries.
On the third day, a man in a van arrived carrying two of the world’s biggest PUMA Suedes. Measured end to end, they are three feet high and rising. Big shoes mean big socks and we had some bigg’uns to fill. Gutting the inch-thick sole was Nash’s first and most dexterous challenge and with scalpel in hand, he endured a solid day of slicing and dicing that was in his own words ‘long and well hard!’ With the trio of circular holes behind him, he added layer upper layer of foam, timber and sheet metal to create a flexible yet sturdy cocoon for our bangin’ often speakers.
