Porsche unveils colorful one-off Taycan by Nike Air Max designer

MANILA: Designer and influencer Sean Wotherspoon collaborated with Porsche to create his own Taycan 4 Cross Turismo. The 32-year-old specializes in stylish streetwear with a vibrant color palette and unique materials. During the South by Southwest in Texas, USA last March, the art car's exterior was unveiled, painted in a color block style.

Recently, Porsche finally unveiled the interior of the art car for the first time. The vibrant color blocking continues with Nash Blue, Sean Peach, Loretta Purple, and Ashley Green. Cork on the dashboard, steering wheel, and center console provides a visual contrast, while corduroy gives a unique touch. This Atacama Beige material is used for the roof lining, seat centers, and sun visors. The committed vegan also requested a leather-free interior, which other Taycan customers can request.

Wotherspoon presented the art car on the Porsche Instagram account, where he also participated in a live question and answer session.

In a statement, Porsche Chief Marketing Officer Robert Ader said, “From Janis Joplin’s psychedelic 356 in the 1960s to the 911 RSR from 2019 designed by Richard Philips — the list of iconic art cars from Porsche is already long. Art cars suit Porsche very well. Creative design work with artists inspires us and motivates us to keep developing the brand without changing it fundamentally.”

“Creativity thrives on interaction,” Style Porsche Head Michael Mauer added. “As a designer, it’s important to question everything and always aspire to consider ideas in a new light. Working with young designers like Sean helps us to gain new impulses from very different product areas.”

“When I look at something, I examine how I can change it and elevate it to a new level,” Wotherspoon stated. “These questions are my personal challenge. It doesn’t matter whether I’m working on a sneaker or car design, a workflow, sustainability topics or a new material. Striving for innovation drives me, and I was fascinated from the start by the unusual materials that the Porsche designers in Weissach work with. We inspired each other again and again throughout the project and ultimately created a completely new type of vehicle design.”

Porsche's marketing communications team spearheaded the collaboration. Wotherspoon was introduced to the Style Porsche designers by the communications experts, who worked with him to stage the car's world debut on Instagram. Wotherspoon paid several visits to the Porsche Design Studio in Weissach, Germany. He also supervised the physical development of his art car on site, spending time in the Weissach trim shop and the concept car facility.

Virtual reality was initially used to explore a variety of exterior color options on a model car. “Inspired by a visit to the Porsche Museum, Sean got the idea for circular elements on the doors. His idea echoes the starting-number roundels on historic racing cars. At the same time, this inverted color breaks up the large area,” Style Porsche Color and Trim Head Volker Muller stated.

Wotherspoon provided the corresponding Pantone reference codes to Porsche to guarantee the colors were exactly what he wanted. The colors were then applied to “paint frogs” so that the sneakerhead could see them in person and evaluate them properly under various conditions. The lighting cabin at the Porsche Design Studio can switch between natural and artificial light at the press of a button.

The paints' odd names have a special meaning. “After we explained the importance of having unique names, Sean named the paints after members of his family,” Muller said.

The goal is to maintain the color blocking theme from the exterior into the interior. Wotherspoon was looking for corduroy and cork, which he often incorporates in his streetwear. Corduroy has a long history at Porsche, with the soft, ribbed material first appearing on the seat centers of the Porsche 356 in 1952. This woven material was used in the new art car in Atacama Beige, which Porsche applied in the 2020 911 Targa 4S Heritage Edition. “Working with cork, however, presented a number of challenges to our trimmers,” Muller said. The laminated material, which came in rolls, had to be fitted to complex shapes like the dashboard.

Wotherspoon's Taycan 4 Cross Turismo is finished off with Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur parts. These include the black 21-inch Cross Turismo Design wheels and rear wiper cover, as well as the black light strip with Porsche lettering. Customers can undertake similar projects through Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur's Sonderwunsch program, which debuted in 2021 as a recreation of the renowned service of the same name from the late 1970s. One example is using the Paint to Sample Plus option to permit future availability of the four colors of Wotherspoon's color blocking exterior.

The Taycan Cross Turismo is the all-rounder among electric sports cars, with all of the Taycan's attributes, such as superior power and range. It also offers more headroom for rear-seat passengers and a maximum luggage compartment capacity of over 1,200 liters. The air suspension on the standard all-wheel-drive chassis allows for height modification. Among its off-road design elements are wheel arch covers, distinct lower sections at the front and rear, and side skirts.

Wotherspoon made his mark with the Nike Air Max 97/1 sneaker he designed in 2018. Aside from the design, the use of corduroy as the upper material was novel, and it has since become a Wotherspoon trademark. He has also been working with Adidas since 2020. He also opened the first Round Two Store, a vintage streetwear and sneakers shop, in the US in 2013. The designer and influencer has previously collaborated with Porsche on a project called “The Art of Drive.” This interactive online mentorship program invites influential personalities to share how they achieved their goals and inspired others along the way through a series of short films, articles, interviews, and digital events.

Photos from Porsche

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