Chinese artists dips Adidas shoes in gold to create ceramic sculpture

The adidas Ultra Boost becomes a canvas for art for artist Lee Chun pic.twitter.com/gUfacSuwrR

— Fashion Finds (@FashionFinds_) January 11, 2016

Running shoes have come a long way in the past few years. Though runners have for a long time been obsessing over getting the fit, cushioning and flexibility right, the fashion world has been much less interested. Finally now, brands are innovating and coming out with bold, statement shoes suitable for running.

But even when we see flashy neons and innovative, new designs, nothing is quite as daring as what one Chinese artist is doing. Lee Chun is taking the well-known Adidas Ultra Boost shoes and turning them into a ceramic sculpture. Chun has made three different versions– all with a very different aesthetic.

The best (in our opinion) is the knockout gold-plated pair. The artist has taken the ceramic sculpture and dipped it in gold resulting in a nice-looking trophy-like art piece. Chun also has created an Ultra Boost sculpture with a pastel colour scheme and decorated it with Chinese characters.

Artist Lee Chun creates gold-plated and ceramic @adidas Ultra Boosts.https://t.co/rqGbV4e9jd pic.twitter.com/sM00898A9a from @HYPEBEAST

— Adam Claridge (@adamclaridge) January 7, 2016

The decorative Adidas running shoes were created for the Taipei Marathon– a race which hosts about 100,000 runners and takes them along a scenic tour of the urban setting.

While runners can’t wear these ceramic sneakers, they are, at the very least, an interesting way to mix the running and art worlds.