RetroPie Running on a Shoe

People that like to game on the go might pick up an Arduboy if they are inclined to do some hacking, an Analogue Pocket if retro is the name of the game, or a Steam Deck if they want something fancy. But not designer Gustavo Bonzanini. Oh no, Bonzanini just puts on a pair of Nike shoes and grabs a controller.

These are not just any shoes, as you have probably guessed by now. They are a customized pair of Nike Air Max 90 shoes, designed to look exactly like you would expect a Super Nintendo (SNES) to look if it were on your foot. But they don’t just look like a SNES, they also play SNES games if you hook them up to your TV.

The trick that makes them work is a Raspberry Pi Zero W single-board computer that is hidden inside. This computer is loaded with RetroPie, so technically, it will emulate a lot more classic consoles than just the SNES. The tongue of one of the shoes has a bank of era-appropriate RCA plugs for composite video and audio output. An original SNES controller is used to play games, but Bonzanini used an 8BitDo Mod Kit to turn it into a wireless Bluetooth controller.

Unfortunately, these shoes are not for sale. Bonzanini created them to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the console’s release in Japan. If you want a portable SNES, you’ll have to stuff a Raspberry Pi in your own shoe.