Zhijun Wang began his career designing customised sneakers in 2008. During this period, he worked with sportswear brands including LiNing, 361° and Puma to design customised sneakers which are now collectors’ items.

Wang first came to the idea of creating a sneaker mask when looking to design a mask that combined both aesthetics and utility. In seeking a suitable material, he turned to his personal collection of sneakers. Firstly, Wang noticed that ‘most of the upper material of the sneaker is light- weight, durable and breathable’, and thus saw it as an appropriate replacement for the fabric of existing facemasks. In an interview with Metal magazine, he also described his personal soft spot for limited-edition sneakers ‘with a special story behind the pair’. He saw the dismantling of sneakers as a way of giving new value and meaning to these highly personal objects.

Wang began making sneaker masks in 2013, combining his skills in sneaker customisation with a desire to bring awareness to Beijing’s ongoing air pollution issues. Although Wang considers his designs a vital part of living in polluted cities, he sees them only as temporary solutions. In sharing these designs, he hopes to encourage a discussion – especially amongst younger generations – about the need to create change in the face of the contemporary global environmental crisis.

The facemask is constructed out of materials from a CLOT x Nike Air Force 1 PRM (premium) sneaker. CLOT is a streetwear label and lifestyle brand founded by Hong Kong designers Edison Chen and Kevin Poon in 2003. The label’s concept is ‘Bridging the East and the West’. The CLOT ‘Silk Royale’ brocade pattern came to prominence in 2009 after being used on several successful collaborative Nike Air Force 1 sneakers released as part of their 1World collection. According to the brand’s blog, JUICE, CLOT adheres to ‘the same manufacturing processes and standards of quality that were applied to more traditional silk fabric items’ from weaving techniques to details like handmade trims.

Wang’s sneaker masks took on a new significance as design interventions within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. In April 2020, Wang and his wife, Yutong Duan, began a public project called ‘Maskology - Everyone Can Make a Mask’ open-access project via their website, providing a mask template in 8 different languages. In response to their manual, their website received over 25,000 views and downloads and people across the world shared their ‘Maskology’ masks on Instagram.