- Apple's running shoe emoji is based on a famous New Balance design
- An artist has turned this emoji into a real pair of sneakers
- You can buy them on the artist's website for $219.
All the best phones come with a bewildering array of different emoji (with new ones being added all the time), but they mostly remain confined to the digital realm. Now, however, a designer has turned Apple's running shoe emoji into a real pair of sneakers you can buy yourself.
Artist José Wong was inspired by Apple's particular version of the running shoe emoji and used it to create a pair of sneakers available in sizes five to 12. The upper is made of full-grain nubuck leather and mesh, with EVA foam and a polyurethane edge on the top. midsole and heel.
There's five percent recycled rubber in the outsole, while the insoles are printed with a chipboard design inspired by iPhone circuitry and Apple's silicon chips. The packaging the shoes will arrive in is also inspired by Apple, with a white paper insert that says “Designed by Josewong in China.”
You can pick up a pair of sneakers from Wong's ABCD brand store, where they'll set you back $219.90 (around £175 / AU$340). Even the product URL incorporates the sneaker emoji.
Why New Balance?
When the Unicode Consortium creates and approves new emoji, the creators of the operating system can interpret them in their own way. That's why emoji can look slightly different on iOS and Android, and even in different apps like Slack, Microsoft Teams, and more.
Apple's version of the running shoe emoji, the one that inspired José Wong, is itself a reference to the New Balance sneakers worn by late Apple founder Steve Jobs.
The former Apple CEO was famous for his “uniform” which consisted of a black turtleneck, blue jeans, and New Balance 991 or 992 shoes. Interestingly, the Apple sneaker emoji is actually based on the New Balance 574, albeit with some subtle changes (including the logo), but the similarities to Jobs' shoe of choice are striking.
If you love iOS running shoe emoji and want a pair for yourself in the real world, José Wong's creation may appeal to you. It's far from the only emoji making its real-life debut (giant emoji plushies are common around the world), but it might be one of the most practical.