Will Everyone Be Rocking This Look If Our Air Gets Too Dirty?

Pollution. It’s a terrible thing, no matter how you feel about the whole global warming issue. Everything from the increase of average climates to occurrences in kids born with asthma has been attributed to the tons of stuff we pump into the air in order to go about our daily lives and create our daily goods. With current President-elect and climate change denier, Donald Trump, at the helm for the next four years, we can definitely expect the factories state-side to be pumping out a bit more smoke into our breathing room. If we need an idea of just how gross smog can get, all we need to do is look at the highly populated country of China, where hazardous outbreaks of smog have been occurring in metropolitan areas. Who knows, one day a breathing mask can become a major part of your outfit. Luckily for a Chinese designer, he’s got a leg up in the style department when it comes to his outside commuting masks.

Chinese designer, Zhijun Wang, decided to bring some flavor to the masks that he uses to protect himself from Beijing’s smog outbreaks that happen from time to time. He handcrafted all of these stylish masks from top of the line sneakers, such as Yeezy 350's and Nike Air Max’s; a project he originally started about two years ago. Zhijun realized that the same light and breathable materials used in high quality athletic shoes would make great ventilating face masks that would keep all the hazardous particles associated with smog out of his lungs, while allowing him to still get the necessary oxygen he needs. Wang is currently the only designer partaking in this peculiar craft, but we don’t doubt that making breathing masks more swagged out may kick off in the near future. Check out a short interview with Zhijun below!