Sean Wotherspoon is a designer and dreamer.
Teva's anthem "For Playground Earth" indicates that Teva is a brand with a strong connection to nature and environmental conservation. Please tell us about the background of the brand and its affinity with your own thoughts, experiences, and style.
I have been living as a vegan for the past 12 years. In this context, I wonder if the work and lifestyle I create is friendly to the global environment. I consider this as the most important thing in my life. That is why I do not use natural leather as a material and never allow animal testing. This is true not only for shoes like these, but also for the past collaboration with Porsche. We did not use natural leather for the seat and handlebars, and chose other parts that have no or little environmental impact.
In the past, you have said that storytelling is an important element that you can reach and that large companies cannot, and that it is important to have a story that resonates with people. So, what is the story behind this collaboration?
We believe there are two stories.
One is the design background of the product itself. In collaborating with Teva, I dug up the archives of the past and incorporated elements of the past into the new design. I believe I was able to achieve this because I know the history of the brand and the products that have been born from that history. The second was to create a mechanism or story that would be enjoyable for the audience who would come into contact with the project. This is to make people empathize more with the design I have created, but I would be happy if it also serves as an opportunity for people to enhance their imagination.
The pop-up that was held to commemorate this collaboration (which has already ended) was the very embodiment of this idea.
Shopping these days has become a tasteless experience where you just stand in line, buy what you want, and go home. Here, however, you can enter an unusual and unseen world and get the same shoes worn by the characters. We held this pop-up in the hope that people would experience a unique and interesting shopping experience unique to this space, rather than a boring shopping experience.
Harajuku is a town filled with so many different things. It would be wonderful if the reason for the things you hold in your hands had a story behind it, not just a design, and I would like visitors to the pop-up to enjoy it more freely and expand their imagination. For example, I would like visitors to the pop-up to be able to enjoy the experience by letting their imaginations run free. (laughs).
I heard that the starting point for this collaboration was your "childhood memories of camping with your father, who loved the outdoors. How did that memory lead to the story of the legendary space explorer "Hawk Jones" and his crew's "trans-galactic adventure to Earth" set in the year 2050?
It is true that my childhood memories of my father and "Teva" are closely connected in my mind. However, I felt that this alone was a little too formal. So, I thought of a way to incorporate more fun ideas and express the craziest, goofiest part of me.
Although I am usually categorized as a designer, I consider myself a dreamer. Therefore, when I collaborate with brands or other people, I try to create projects that give form to the world of my dreams and imagination. As a result, Teva's sandals have become a necessity for future space explorers.
The movie and key visuals are truly unique, with the acrobatic action that attracts the viewer's attention. Please tell us what you focused on.
The concept of the film was to show a video work from the year 2900 in a "future history museum" excavated on the earth in the year 2950 AD. Therefore, we pursued a sense of reality so that the viewer would perceive the film as something real that actually existed in the past, rather than as a mere off-the-cuff joke.
Professional stuntmen were used for each character, and the helmets and space suits worn by the characters were aged in a custom workshop in California. We hope that you will enjoy the film as if you were watching a Hollywood movie.
