Korean artist and “Overwatch” fan Upboy recently created a line of sneakers based on the heroes and villains of Blizzard’s popular online shooter.
Heroes Never Die spotted the collection this week at the Overwatch Fan Festival in Seoul. The sneakers are altered Nike Air Force 1s and each pair sports the color scheme and logos of the character they represent — Widowmaker, Zenyatta, Zarya, Genji, McCree, Mercy, D. Va, Ana, Soldier: 76, Tracer, and Lucio.
Blizzard debuted a new map and animated short during the Overwatch Fan Festival on Wednesday. The map is based on Busan, South Korea, and it’s currently on “Overwatch’s” public test realm. It’s a control map spread out over three distinct areas: a MEKA base, a downtown cityscape, and a garden sanctuary. The animated short, meanwhile, focuses on Korean pro-gamer-turned-mecha-pilot D. Va and her battle against the Omnics.
Publisher Activision formed a consumer products group in 2017 to produce more merchandise based on video games like “Overwatch.” It launched a Uniqlo apparel line in May. It recently teamed up with Nerf to create a line of toy weapons modeled after ones found in the game. It’s also working on “Overwatch” Lego sets.
Unfortunately, the Nikes aren’t available to buy. Collaborations between shoe companies and game publishers aren’t uncommon, though. Vans and Nintendo recently teamed up to create a line of 8-bit sneakers. Maybe we’ll see “Overwatch” kicks on store shelves some day, too. In the meantime, people can see more of Upboy’s work on his Instagram page, including some footwear based on Nintendo characters like Mario and Luigi.
