Nike Air Max 90 “Metallic Pack” featuring Göran Kling

March is always a special month for Sneakersnstuff; it’s the time of the year we once opened our door for the first time. Back in 1999. Nike Air Max Day kicked off a bit later, in 2014 to be exact, when the Beaverton-based sportswear brand paid homage to 27 years of Nike Air Max on the 26th of March. Coincidently, and which scriptwriter could have sketched it up any better, the 26th of March was the day SNS officially unlocked its doors in Stockholm, Sweden. A match made in heaven to celebrate now for six years in a row with six more stores around the world and several limited-edition Air Max Day sneaker releases. Today Air Max Day has been extended to Air Max Month, and Nike celebrates with SNS in Tokyo the annual jamboree highlighting this year’s [Air Max 90 “Metallic Pack.”](/sneakers/nike "Nike Air Max 90 "Metallic Pack" sneakers at Sneakersnstuff") Both styles are straight-up eyecatchers, and the duo of gold and silver-metallic kicks balance an OG look with razor-sharp edges. And how better to highlight this day of all Air Max days than linking up with Stockholm-based Jeweler Göran Kling. The long-time SNS collaborator is known for his wavy silver and gold bling, and besides creating unique store details for SNS (check out the water tap in our Berlin location), the one-man-brand GK reimagined the Metallic Pack through his lens as liquid metal through a signature Air Max 90 sterling silver pendant, that will be gifted to a selected few who have taken part in the draw.

Check out our interview with Göran Kling below and get your hands on the Nike Air Max 90 “Metallic Pack” here.

SNS: Göran, as part of our extended SNS family and as a long-time SNS collaborator, please introduce yourself to our audience.

Göran: Yes Fam! I´m artist and jewellery maker based in Sweden. My original education was as a traditional goldsmith but have since then also studied at Konstfack which the Art and Design University in Stockholm. Now I make stuff that is somewhere in between traditional craft and art.

We have worked with you on several occasions, and while you are known for jewelry, your interior designs are integral parts of our SNS stores around the world. Your latest work for Sneakersnstuff is in partnership with Nike Tokyo for Air Max Day. Please talk us through the custom jewelry piece that you have created for us.

The theme for the project is Liquid Metal so I immediately knew I wanted to make a melt dripping AIR MAX 90 shoe. There's something fascinating about melting silver. I was always obsessed with the T-1000 in Terminator 2, how he just melts together again after being shot. I also wanted the piece to work both as necklace and a classic shoe tag so it's nice and chunky in Sterling Silver.

How do you approach a project like this, and how do you stay free during the design process, even though there are certain creative brief that you have to accommodate?

This project kinda designed itself. The AM90 silhouette is so strong and iconic I knew right away I wanted to work with that, and since I have this love for melting metal, it was basically a matter of combining those two elements as best as possible.

Rings and chains are signature jewelry pieces that you design and also manufacture in Stockholm. How does it feel about collaborating with brands like Nike, and how was this journey, knowing that you can easily transition between personal ideas and pieces like the liquid Nike Air Max 90 so easily?

I'm a huge sneaker fan so for me to get to make jewellery with Nike is really a blessing! My first sneakers that I bought with my own money was a pair of Air Max 90 (white with blue trimming and a silver check!) To me the feeling of wearing some really nice jewellery is very similar to the feeling of putting on a fresh pair of kicks. It´s adornment.

Can you maybe tell us about how your design-style has evolved since first starting as a jeweler, and do you work on everything at the same time or one thing at once?

When I first started out making jewellery the things I made were much more traditional and a bit constrained by ideas about what I thought jewellery “should” look like. Over the years I think my way of making jewellery has evolved in to a more personal expression. I still enjoy the craft and process of making jewellery but now I allow myself to play end experiment more. I usually work on a lot of pieces at the same time. Some things I make are super quick and some pieces I work and re-work for months before I finish.

In times like these, where many of us work from home, how big of an influence is the internet when it comes to your work?

Huge! The internet has had a profound influence not just on where I find ideas and inspiration, but also how I communicate and sell my work. Being able to have my own platform has given me freedom to work in a way that wasn't possible before. I think a lot of the craft-boom that has happened in the last years has to do with the fact that makers can now communicate and sell works directly to their audience online.

It’s Air Max month, so we have to ask, what are your favorite Nike Air Max sneakers and why?

I gotta go with the original Air Max 90 “Infrared”, It's just such an iconic shoe. That color combination and the bulky silhouette is like the essence of 90-ties aesthetics for me. It should be in every Design Museums collection!