Tag Archives: Fashion

The90Gem smart necklace tracks UV exposure in real-time for sensible skincare

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Wearables are targeting most of our burning health concerns, but sun exposure damage is still in the guessing game. Stacy Salvi, who has previously led the acquisition of Fitbit by Google, and is a health expert when it comes to tech wearables, wants skincare to be more considerate when it comes to active sun exposure. Under her new venture, The90, Stacy has launched the Gem wearable that looks like a stylish round necklace for women.

On the inside, the wearable has a built-in UV sensor to track the skin’s UV exposure in real time. The gadget makes complete sense, as most of the time we are left guessing about the real exposure to damaging Sun rays, and are dependent on integrated weather apps’ UV index, which only show generic localised data. Gem goes beyond that and actively tracks the real-time exposure, whether you are lounging in the mid-day Sun or spending afternoons sitting near an office window. It basically takes out the guesswork and focuses on the real-time solution.

Designer: The90

The90Gem keeps a tab of the UVA and UVB data received from the sensors in real time, and over time builds a personal skincare profile that is actually beneficial. “The90 transforms sunscreen from a one-time morning ritual into an adaptive, responsive system built around your actual UV load,” Salvi said. Micromanaging the skin type, sunscreen used, and any sun-protective clothing that you’re wearing is another feature of the accompanying app. For now, the wearable is specifically targeted towards women who tend to be more informed about the risks of UV exposure. The brand, however, eventually wants to expand the product line to men and children as well.

Detecting UVA and UVB exposure is one part of the wearable. The most important bit is the timely beaming of notifications for sunscreen application, or a reminder of the sun protection habits that should eventually be ingrained in your muscle memory. The app also provides data on Vitamin D targets for a mindful suncare routine. The Gem is essentially a titanium case with the sensor inside, wholly encapsulated in a pendant. The battery on the gadget should last for around a week on a single charge, but that remains to be seen in real-world usage.

This piece of smart jewellery is available in silver or gold finish to complete the aesthetic look. Priced at $299, The90 Gem wearable is just borderline affordable for a specific benefit, but the members of The Skinny Confidential community can get it for an exclusive price of $199 in the early access offer. The company also has plans to incorporate the smart wearable as other items as well, which should further expand the options to gauge your sun exposure in style.

The post The90Gem smart necklace tracks UV exposure in real-time for sensible skincare first appeared on Yanko Design.

Adidas Just Squared the Stan Smith. It Actually Works.

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The Stan Smith is one of those shoes you either already own or have owned at some point. Originally developed as a tennis shoe in 1965 under the name Adidas Robert Haillet, it became one of Adidas’s most recognizable silhouettes of all time, outlasting trends, entire aesthetic movements, and decades of fluctuating fashion without ever really trying. It’s clean, it’s white, it’s unmistakable. So when Adidas announced the Stan Smith SQ, a version with a deliberately squared-off toe, the reactions were predictably split between “finally” and “why would you do that.” I land firmly in the first camp.

The square toe has a longer history than most people realize. Evidence of blunt-toed footwear dates back over 1,700 years, with roots in Japan, and the style resurfaced periodically over the centuries, including in Victorian women’s shoes and later through rodeo culture, where square toes were practical for balance and foot movement. In the modern era, Martin Margiela made it a high-fashion statement with his square tabi shoes, and that influence never quite went away. Now, with brands across the spectrum embracing exaggerated silhouettes and unconventional geometry, the square toe is very much back in serious conversation. Adidas didn’t just chase a trend here. They attached it to one of the most recognizable shoe silhouettes in existence, which is either a genius move or a bold gamble, probably both.

Designer: Adidas

What makes the Stan Smith SQ work is that Adidas knew where to stop. The rest of the shoe is essentially untouched. You still get the glossy white leather upper, the signature Three Stripes perforations along the side, the green heel tab, and yes, the actual photograph of Stan Smith on the tongue. The update is a single, precise edit: one geometric shift that changes the entire energy of the shoe without erasing everything that made it iconic in the first place. That kind of restraint is harder to achieve than people give designers credit for. It’s easy to overhaul. It’s much harder to know which one thing to change.

The squared toe box introduces a sharper, more structured profile. It makes the shoe feel less sporty and more fashion-adjacent, which is clearly the point. For a sneaker that has spent decades straddling the line between athletic and everyday wear, the SQ version leans confidently toward the latter. It reads as intentional in a way the original can’t always pull off, given how casual and effortless its default vibe tends to be. Put the Stan Smith SQ on with a clean outfit and it doesn’t just blend in, it actually finishes the look.

There will be people who find the square toe awkward, and I get it. Rounded toes are familiar. They feel safe, anatomical, expected. The square version asks you to commit to something a little more deliberate, a little more fashion-aware. It’s the kind of shoe that signals you’ve thought about what you’re wearing, even if the rest of your outfit is as simple as jeans and a white T-shirt. That’s not a bad thing to communicate.

At $130, the Stan Smith SQ is priced in line with the original, which is worth noting. This isn’t a luxury reimagining or a limited collector release. It’s a widely accessible design update dropping in the classic white and green colorway for Summer 2026. That accessibility matters. It means the square toe gets a real audience beyond the fashion insiders who already knew the Margiela reference. It puts the idea in front of people who just want a good shoe that looks considered, and that’s a much broader and more interesting conversation to be part of.

Whether you’re a sneakerhead, a design enthusiast, or just someone who likes footwear that looks like it was chosen on purpose, the Stan Smith SQ makes a quiet but confident case for itself. Not every update to a classic needs to be revolutionary. Sometimes the most interesting design decision is a single, deliberate line drawn somewhere it hasn’t been before.

The post Adidas Just Squared the Stan Smith. It Actually Works. first appeared on Yanko Design.

Prada designs a hidden Onesie that could keep NASA’s Artemis astronauts alive on the Moon

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The fashion and home décor industry has, for years, looked toward space for inspiration. Prada is a brand that’s pushing through to be the first luxury fashion house to inspire space travel instead. For its new adventure in space, Prada has designed an inner-layer garment that astronauts aboard the NASA Artemis headed for the Moon will wear underneath their space suits.

For some fashion enthusiasts, this could come as a surprise, but the fact is, Prada has been working for a few years now with Axiom Space. Axiom is a private company that NASA has partnered with to develop spacesuits for its astronauts to wear on the upcoming Artemis missions.

Designer: Prada x Axiom Space

Axiom Space and Prada first unveiled the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU), a next-generation spacesuit, in 2024. “AxEMU is the first major upgrade to NASA’s space suits in more than 20 years,” and it is designed for NASA’s Artemis III mission and beyond. Now, believing the astronauts need a way to keep cool and oxygenated within the bulky space suit when on the lunar surface, Prada has introduced the garment to wear under the space suit, which has been part of the design process.

With the company’s signature red stripe on the sleeve, which is apparent on Prada’s activewear collection, the onesie called the Liquid Cooling Ventilation Garment (LCVG) will go under the space suit, as an innerwear (we cannot comment whether astronauts will need another layer of innerwear underneath). The LCVG is provided with tubes running around the back, which are used to circulate cold water around the astronaut’s body. The entire thing is designed in a high fashion sense, so the onesie is sleek and a complete wear in itself.

Designed primarily to keep the astronaut’s body from overheating while they walk on the moon, it is also provided with a ventilation system to deliver oxygen and remove carbon dioxide formed inside the AxEMU. Talking about the convenience and benefits of this finely crafted innerwear, the senior vice president of spacecrafts at Axiom Space informs, “Every minute astronauts spend outside their (lunar) vehicle, the LCVG is working to keep them safe.” Axiom’s CEO and president, Jonathan Cirtain, pointed out that the LCVG “…manages their (astronauts’) thermal environment, supports their breathing, and does it all while they’re pushing their bodies to the limit.”

NASA hopes to carry out the Artemis III mission, a crewed test flight, the second such mission in the Artemis lunar exploration program in 2027. And then eventually make the first crewed landing on the Moon’s south pole in preceding missions by early 2028. The Artemis campaign is NASA’s human spaceflight mission to land American astronauts on the surface of the Moon, establish a sustainable presence on the lunar surface, and form a foundation for future manned missions to the Red Planet.

The post Prada designs a hidden Onesie that could keep NASA’s Artemis astronauts alive on the Moon first appeared on Yanko Design.

Crocs Just Entered the Mushroom Kingdom and We’re Into It

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Crocs and Nintendo are not brands you’d typically put in the same sentence as “high-concept design collaboration.” And yet here we are, with the Crocs x Super Mario collection dropping July 15, 2026, looking far better than the premise suggests it should.

The announcement landed earlier this week, and the first reaction — at least my first reaction — was that resigned nod you give when two things that were always meant to go together finally figure it out. Crocs has been quietly rebuilding its cultural credibility for years through a series of increasingly clever partnerships, and Super Mario is the one IP on the planet that genuinely belongs to everyone. People who grew up with a Game Boy, adults who still boot up Mario Kart on a Friday night, and people who have never touched a controller but know exactly who Mario is. That kind of universal ownership is rare, and landing it on a foam clog might be the smartest move either brand has made this year.

Designer: Crocs x Nintendo

Five styles make up the collection, each built around a specific character, and the level of detail is more than you’d expect from a licensed shoe drop. The Mario clog sits on a blue foam base with a plush version of Mario’s signature red cap attached directly to the upper — playful without being costume-y. The Yoshi style goes full green with PVC fins running along the upper, which somehow manages to feel sculptural rather than silly. Then there’s the Bowser clog: dark green foam, seven PVC spikes on the upper, and five more replacing Jibbitz on the strap. Bowser would absolutely approve.

Princess Peach gets the most elevated treatment, with a platform sole finished in pink glitter and seven exclusive Jibbitz charms. It reads more fashion than novelty, which is a genuine design achievement for a shoe that has a question block on it. Rounding out the group is the Core Classic Clog, which pulls from the game’s broader iconography — coins, stars, turtle shells — and comes with eight Jibbitz charms and an option in kids’ sizing. The right call.

Pricing runs from $55 to $90, which lands comfortably in impulse-buy territory for any adult who will absolutely tell themselves they’re buying it for their kid.

What makes this feel considered rather than purely commercial is how naturally the characters map onto what Crocs already does. Crocs has never been a brand that does subtle. It’s loud, comfortable, and entirely unapologetic about existing. Nintendo’s Super Mario roster operates the same way. These are characters drawn in primary colours with maximum personality and zero pretension. They don’t need your endorsement. So when Bowser turns up as a spike-covered clog, it doesn’t feel like a brand sticking a logo on a product. It feels like the character found the right medium.

The Jibbitz element is doing quiet but important work across the collection. Each pair ships with six to eight exclusive co-branded charms, which means every clog doubles as an entry point into Crocs’ customisation ecosystem. Crocs has always understood that Jibbitz turn a shoe into something personal, closer to a wearable mood board than just footwear. Giving Super Mario fans a way into that system is smart, and it means the collection will live well past its launch date.

I’ll be straight: I did not expect to be genuinely interested in a pair of foam shoes shaped like Yoshi. I expected novelty for children and maybe a few nostalgic adults grabbing one on a whim. What the collection actually delivers is a thoughtful translation of game design into product design — character-specific textures, shapes, and details that suggest someone actually played the games and asked what it means for a shoe to feel like a character, not just look like one.

The Crocs x Super Mario collection is available from July 15 on crocs.com, the Nintendo Store, and select retailers globally. Your feet are going to the Mushroom Kingdom.

The post Crocs Just Entered the Mushroom Kingdom and We’re Into It first appeared on Yanko Design.

Ultrahuman Ring PRO’s 15-Day Battery Removes the Main Reason to Quit

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Most wearables make a generous promise: that daily wear will eventually help you understand your body better. In practice, though, many end up on a nightstand by Tuesday because the battery died or the data was too much to decode. The market for health wearables has grown quickly, but the friction hasn’t cleared as fast as the feature lists have gotten longer.

Smart rings have been one answer to that problem. They’re smaller, quieter, and don’t ask for your attention the way a smartwatch does. Ultrahuman’s Ring PRO is the company’s third-generation take on that idea, and it comes with a compact Mini Charger built around the same philosophy. Together, they’re designed to make health tracking feel like something running in the background rather than a habit you have to maintain.

Designer: Ultrahuman Healthcare Ltd.

Click Here to Buy Now: $399 $530 ($131 off). Hurry, only 1737/2005 left! Raised over $447,000.

A big part of that comes down to battery life. The Ring PRO offers up to 15 days on a single charge, roughly three to four times what most competing smart rings manage. That means fewer interruptions during long trips, consistent overnight tracking without data gaps, and no anxiety about a dead ring. The pocket-sized Mini Charger handles the rest, plugging in via Type-C and fitting easily into any bag. Utilizing the new UltraSnap Charging Technology, the Ring PRO magnetically clicks into place, removing the stress of trying to aim for perfect alignment. The charger also generates less heat while in use, thanks to an energy-efficient mechanism.

The ring sports a unibody titanium build, using the same fighter jet-grade material that has defined the Ultrahuman Ring from the beginning, keeping it lightweight yet durable enough for continuous wear. It’s water-resistant to 100m, so showers, swims, and more demanding water activities don’t require taking it off. It comes in sizes 5 to 14 and in four finishes: Bionic Gold, Aster Black, Space Silver, and Raw Titanium.

What sets Ring PRO apart, though, is a layer of real-time biointelligence called Jade AI. Rather than presenting raw data on a dashboard for you to decode, Jade reads across ring biometrics, blood biomarkers, and environmental data, then tells you what it all means for your health. It offers both quick answers for everyday use and a deeper research mode for tracking longer patterns and trends.

The core tracking covers the health signals most people care about: sleep stages, resting heart rate, HRV, body temperature, and daily movement. The Sleep Index and Dynamic Recovery don’t just score your rest or readiness; they aim to interpret those signals and adjust guidance as your body changes. The Stress Rhythm feature adds another layer by analyzing how your heart responds throughout the day against your circadian backdrop. Finally, Ultra Age can track how improving your lifestyle positively impacts your aging trajectory, giving you a competitive edge against time.

Beyond the basics, Ring PRO includes a library of more targeted health tools called PowerPlugs, precision micro-tools designed for highly personalized health insights. The Caffeine Window, for example, maps the best times for coffee against your recovery data and shifts your daily cutoff based on how well you slept. The Circadian Alignment tool tracks your body’s internal rhythm and flags when light, movement, or rest will have the most impact on energy and sleep quality.

The ring also adapts to different life stages rather than assuming everyone shares the same baseline. There are also dedicated modes for shift workers, new parents, and people with irregular schedules, where the scoring accounts for unconventional sleep timing and focuses on quality rather than rigid duration rules.

Women’s health is an extra strong focus for the Ultrahuman Ring PRO, and it goes beyond just covering cycle tracking, ovulation prediction, and logging symptoms. Cycle Flags, for example, offer insights that let women take a more proactive approach rather than just waiting for things to happen. With over 90% accuracy for ovulation confirmation, OvuSense Technology helps you understand your body better, whether you’re trying to conceive or navigating an irregular cycle.

Health tracking only works if you wear the device consistently enough for the data to build into something meaningful. Ring PRO’s combination of up to 250 days of on-ring storage, a dual-core processor with on-chip machine learning for speed, efficiency, and reliability, and a build designed for 24-hour wear makes a fairly pointed argument that the biggest obstacle between most people and better health data has always been friction, not features.

Click Here to Buy Now: $399 $530 ($131 off). Hurry, only 1737/2005 left! Raised over $447,000.

The post Ultrahuman Ring PRO’s 15-Day Battery Removes the Main Reason to Quit first appeared on Yanko Design.

Ultrahuman Ring PRO’s 15-Day Battery Removes the Main Reason to Quit

Posted on by

Most wearables make a generous promise: that daily wear will eventually help you understand your body better. In practice, though, many end up on a nightstand by Tuesday because the battery died or the data was too much to decode. The market for health wearables has grown quickly, but the friction hasn’t cleared as fast as the feature lists have gotten longer.

Smart rings have been one answer to that problem. They’re smaller, quieter, and don’t ask for your attention the way a smartwatch does. Ultrahuman’s Ring PRO is the company’s third-generation take on that idea, and it comes with a compact Mini Charger built around the same philosophy. Together, they’re designed to make health tracking feel like something running in the background rather than a habit you have to maintain.

Designer: Ultrahuman Healthcare Ltd.

Click Here to Buy Now: $399 $530 ($131 off). Hurry, only 1737/2005 left! Raised over $447,000.

A big part of that comes down to battery life. The Ring PRO offers up to 15 days on a single charge, roughly three to four times what most competing smart rings manage. That means fewer interruptions during long trips, consistent overnight tracking without data gaps, and no anxiety about a dead ring. The pocket-sized Mini Charger handles the rest, plugging in via Type-C and fitting easily into any bag. Utilizing the new UltraSnap Charging Technology, the Ring PRO magnetically clicks into place, removing the stress of trying to aim for perfect alignment. The charger also generates less heat while in use, thanks to an energy-efficient mechanism.

The ring sports a unibody titanium build, using the same fighter jet-grade material that has defined the Ultrahuman Ring from the beginning, keeping it lightweight yet durable enough for continuous wear. It’s water-resistant to 100m, so showers, swims, and more demanding water activities don’t require taking it off. It comes in sizes 5 to 14 and in four finishes: Bionic Gold, Aster Black, Space Silver, and Raw Titanium.

What sets Ring PRO apart, though, is a layer of real-time biointelligence called Jade AI. Rather than presenting raw data on a dashboard for you to decode, Jade reads across ring biometrics, blood biomarkers, and environmental data, then tells you what it all means for your health. It offers both quick answers for everyday use and a deeper research mode for tracking longer patterns and trends.

The core tracking covers the health signals most people care about: sleep stages, resting heart rate, HRV, body temperature, and daily movement. The Sleep Index and Dynamic Recovery don’t just score your rest or readiness; they aim to interpret those signals and adjust guidance as your body changes. The Stress Rhythm feature adds another layer by analyzing how your heart responds throughout the day against your circadian backdrop. Finally, Ultra Age can track how improving your lifestyle positively impacts your aging trajectory, giving you a competitive edge against time.

Beyond the basics, Ring PRO includes a library of more targeted health tools called PowerPlugs, precision micro-tools designed for highly personalized health insights. The Caffeine Window, for example, maps the best times for coffee against your recovery data and shifts your daily cutoff based on how well you slept. The Circadian Alignment tool tracks your body’s internal rhythm and flags when light, movement, or rest will have the most impact on energy and sleep quality.

The ring also adapts to different life stages rather than assuming everyone shares the same baseline. There are also dedicated modes for shift workers, new parents, and people with irregular schedules, where the scoring accounts for unconventional sleep timing and focuses on quality rather than rigid duration rules.

Women’s health is an extra strong focus for the Ultrahuman Ring PRO, and it goes beyond just covering cycle tracking, ovulation prediction, and logging symptoms. Cycle Flags, for example, offer insights that let women take a more proactive approach rather than just waiting for things to happen. With over 90% accuracy for ovulation confirmation, OvuSense Technology helps you understand your body better, whether you’re trying to conceive or navigating an irregular cycle.

Health tracking only works if you wear the device consistently enough for the data to build into something meaningful. Ring PRO’s combination of up to 250 days of on-ring storage, a dual-core processor with on-chip machine learning for speed, efficiency, and reliability, and a build designed for 24-hour wear makes a fairly pointed argument that the biggest obstacle between most people and better health data has always been friction, not features.

Click Here to Buy Now: $399 $530 ($131 off). Hurry, only 1737/2005 left! Raised over $447,000.

The post Ultrahuman Ring PRO’s 15-Day Battery Removes the Main Reason to Quit first appeared on Yanko Design.

No Vision Pro 2 Before 2028. Apple’s Focusing On Smart-Glasses Instead, says Gurman

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Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses sold over 7 million units in 2025, a number that would have seemed improbable two years earlier when the category barely existed outside enterprise pilots and conference demos. Google confirmed its own entry at I/O 2026, with Gemini-powered frames and eyewear partnerships with Warby Parker and Gentle Monster already in place. The market Apple is entering has already been legitimized by its competitors, which is an unusual position for a company that typically defines the categories it enters. All of that makes the N50, Apple’s first smart glasses, feel like a response to a race that started without it. The honest version of that story includes the fact that Apple’s engineers were busy building something else entirely.

The N50 is the product that absorbed the engineering resources originally aimed at a Vision Pro sequel. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman confirmed in May that no headset successor is in active development, and that the Vision Air, a cheaper model codenamed N100, was canceled last year to redirect talent toward smart glasses. Apple restructured the Vision Products Group, splitting engineers across hardware and software divisions, with many redeployed to the glasses program, to Siri, and to camera-equipped AirPods. The glasses carry cameras, microphones, speakers, and Apple Intelligence inside a conventional eyeglass frame with no display, no pass-through video, and no external battery, functioning as an iPhone accessory in the same way AirPods or Apple Watch do. A late 2026 reveal and 2027 commercial launch is the expected window, with analyst Ming-Chi Kuo projecting 3 to 5 million units shipped in the first year.

Designer: Oleh Koval

Four frame styles are in testing, two rectangular and two oval, built in premium acetate with colorways including black, ocean blue, and light brown (the images shown here are just a concept mocked up by designer Oleh Koval back in 2018). Apple initially experimented with embedding electronics into established eyewear brand frames, similar to Meta’s EssilorLuxottica arrangement for the Ray-Ban lineup, before moving toward designing its own frames in multiple sizes. Meta’s partnership gave the smart glasses category immediate cultural legitimacy because Wayfarers were already objects people wanted on their faces before any chip was inside them. Apple is betting its own design language in premium acetate can carry the same weight without borrowed heritage. Whether that holds against consumers who have already spent two years wearing Ray-Ban Metas is the sharpest design question the N50 faces at launch.

Two cameras are planned inside the frame: a high-resolution sensor for photos and video, and a second dedicated to computer vision tasks, helping the device read its environment and measure spatial relationships between objects. The N401, a custom chip derived from Apple Watch silicon, handles the compute with a design emphasis on ultra-low power draw, targeting a total frame weight below 50 grams. That weight target is the industrial design achievement the whole product depends on. A sub-50 gram device sits within the weight range of premium optical frames, which means the person wearing it makes a fashion decision first and a technology decision second. That ordering is exactly what the smart glasses category has needed to move beyond enthusiast territory into genuine everyday carry.

The M5 Vision Pro that arrived in October 2025 reads now as a holding action rather than a product commitment. The chip swap kept the SKU alive but left the device’s foundational problems untouched: 650 grams of front-heavy glass and aluminum, a mandatory external battery, and a $3,499 entry point that stranded it between developer hardware and enterprise curiosity. The Vision Air was supposed to address the weight and price simultaneously, and its cancellation signals that those two problems couldn’t be reconciled inside an enclosed headset on any timeline Apple found workable. A Vision Pro sequel won’t arrive before 2028, meaning it enters a market the N50 will have already spent a year conditioning. That sequencing is either very deliberate or very revealing, and I’d argue it’s both.

Pricing estimates cluster between $299 and $499, placing the N50 directly against the Meta Ray-Ban Gen 2. Privacy is a genuine competitive lever here: nearly 47% of potential smart glasses buyers cite data concerns, and neither Meta nor Google carries credible on-device processing as a core value proposition. Apple’s Apple Intelligence architecture, built around local compute rather than cloud offload, gives the company a story neither competitor can cleanly replicate. A second-generation model with an in-lens display is reportedly expected as early as 2028, which is also the window when enclosed headset technology might finally be miniaturized enough to make a Vision Pro sequel viable. The N50, by that reading, is the product Apple had to build before it could build the one it always imagined.

The post No Vision Pro 2 Before 2028. Apple’s Focusing On Smart-Glasses Instead, says Gurman first appeared on Yanko Design.

Zara and PlayStation Just Made Gaming Fashion Actually Cool

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Gaming and fashion have been flirting with each other for years, and most of the time, the results are predictable. Graphic tees with pixelated prints, oversized hoodies branded with controller icons, the kind of stuff you see at gaming conventions and immediately forget. So when Zara dropped a PlayStation capsule collection, my expectations were calibrated accordingly. Then I actually looked at it, and I had to reconsider.

For 2026, Zara released six PlayStation-branded pieces that sit somewhere between fan merch and something you’d genuinely pick up because it looks good. The lineup includes a wallet, high-top sneakers, a belt bag, and three distinct crossbody bags. Not a graphic tee in sight. As someone who’s watched the gaming-meets-fashion space produce some genuinely cringe-worthy results over the years, the restraint here is worth noting.

Designer: Zara

The star piece, at least from a conversation standpoint, is the PlayStation 30th Anniversary crossbody bag. It’s shaped like a PS controller, which sounds like it should be embarrassing, and yet it isn’t. The gray colorway keeps it from tipping into costume territory. It measures roughly 8.3 by 4.7 inches, just big enough to be functional, and comes with an adjustable and removable strap. The materials are standard Zara fare: polyamide outer shell, silicone accents, polyester lining. It retails for $32.90, which is the kind of price that makes impulse buying very easy to justify.

The PlayStation wallet follows a similar design language: a “PS” emblem against a black exterior, with a blue interior lined with card sleeves and pockets. PlayStation’s iconic triangle, circle, cross, and square symbols show up throughout the collection, and Zara was smart enough to let them do the heavy lifting without overdecorating everything else. Less is more is an obvious design principle, but it’s one that gaming merchandise consistently ignores. Zara mostly doesn’t.

The high-top sneakers in black are probably the piece I’d personally reach for. They have a lace-up closure, a back pull tab, and a rubber sole with an air chamber detail, nothing revolutionary in terms of construction, but the PlayStation branding is subtle enough that they read as a regular pair of fashion sneakers to anyone who isn’t paying close attention. That’s actually the point. The best pop-culture-inspired fashion pieces are the ones that don’t require you to announce what they’re referencing. They just exist in your wardrobe and let people figure it out.

It’s worth stepping back and understanding why this collection exists at all. PlayStation turned 30 in December 2024, and Sony spent much of the following year leaning into that milestone through partnerships with brands across fashion, design, and lifestyle. Zara, the Spanish fast-fashion giant, was one of the licensees granted the rights to design and sell PlayStation-themed products. The 30th anniversary bag generated real buzz on social media when it first appeared, with people on Threads and Instagram noting it was the kind of gaming merchandise they’d actually carry to a convention, or to brunch.

The broader context matters too. Sony is reportedly developing a new console and possibly a handheld, with speculation swirling about whether it’s going to be a hybrid device or two separate products. The PlayStation brand is being kept warm and visible across multiple categories while hardware fans wait for the next announcement. Fashion partnerships are part of that strategy, and they work best when the design side doesn’t get lazy.

Whether you’re a PlayStation fan or simply someone who appreciates a well-executed brand collaboration, the Zara capsule is worth a look. It doesn’t try too hard, and that’s its greatest asset. Gaming culture has spent decades trying to earn a seat at the fashion table. Collections like this one suggest the seat is finally being offered, not because gaming has changed, but because the rest of the world has caught up to how seriously people take it. The controller-shaped bag is genuinely fun. The sneakers are wearable. And the wallet might just be the most understated piece of PlayStation merchandise anyone has ever made.

The post Zara and PlayStation Just Made Gaming Fashion Actually Cool first appeared on Yanko Design.

Zara and PlayStation Just Made Gaming Fashion Actually Cool

Posted on by

Gaming and fashion have been flirting with each other for years, and most of the time, the results are predictable. Graphic tees with pixelated prints, oversized hoodies branded with controller icons, the kind of stuff you see at gaming conventions and immediately forget. So when Zara dropped a PlayStation capsule collection, my expectations were calibrated accordingly. Then I actually looked at it, and I had to reconsider.

For 2026, Zara released six PlayStation-branded pieces that sit somewhere between fan merch and something you’d genuinely pick up because it looks good. The lineup includes a wallet, high-top sneakers, a belt bag, and three distinct crossbody bags. Not a graphic tee in sight. As someone who’s watched the gaming-meets-fashion space produce some genuinely cringe-worthy results over the years, the restraint here is worth noting.

Designer: Zara

The star piece, at least from a conversation standpoint, is the PlayStation 30th Anniversary crossbody bag. It’s shaped like a PS controller, which sounds like it should be embarrassing, and yet it isn’t. The gray colorway keeps it from tipping into costume territory. It measures roughly 8.3 by 4.7 inches, just big enough to be functional, and comes with an adjustable and removable strap. The materials are standard Zara fare: polyamide outer shell, silicone accents, polyester lining. It retails for $32.90, which is the kind of price that makes impulse buying very easy to justify.

The PlayStation wallet follows a similar design language: a “PS” emblem against a black exterior, with a blue interior lined with card sleeves and pockets. PlayStation’s iconic triangle, circle, cross, and square symbols show up throughout the collection, and Zara was smart enough to let them do the heavy lifting without overdecorating everything else. Less is more is an obvious design principle, but it’s one that gaming merchandise consistently ignores. Zara mostly doesn’t.

The high-top sneakers in black are probably the piece I’d personally reach for. They have a lace-up closure, a back pull tab, and a rubber sole with an air chamber detail, nothing revolutionary in terms of construction, but the PlayStation branding is subtle enough that they read as a regular pair of fashion sneakers to anyone who isn’t paying close attention. That’s actually the point. The best pop-culture-inspired fashion pieces are the ones that don’t require you to announce what they’re referencing. They just exist in your wardrobe and let people figure it out.

It’s worth stepping back and understanding why this collection exists at all. PlayStation turned 30 in December 2024, and Sony spent much of the following year leaning into that milestone through partnerships with brands across fashion, design, and lifestyle. Zara, the Spanish fast-fashion giant, was one of the licensees granted the rights to design and sell PlayStation-themed products. The 30th anniversary bag generated real buzz on social media when it first appeared, with people on Threads and Instagram noting it was the kind of gaming merchandise they’d actually carry to a convention, or to brunch.

The broader context matters too. Sony is reportedly developing a new console and possibly a handheld, with speculation swirling about whether it’s going to be a hybrid device or two separate products. The PlayStation brand is being kept warm and visible across multiple categories while hardware fans wait for the next announcement. Fashion partnerships are part of that strategy, and they work best when the design side doesn’t get lazy.

Whether you’re a PlayStation fan or simply someone who appreciates a well-executed brand collaboration, the Zara capsule is worth a look. It doesn’t try too hard, and that’s its greatest asset. Gaming culture has spent decades trying to earn a seat at the fashion table. Collections like this one suggest the seat is finally being offered, not because gaming has changed, but because the rest of the world has caught up to how seriously people take it. The controller-shaped bag is genuinely fun. The sneakers are wearable. And the wallet might just be the most understated piece of PlayStation merchandise anyone has ever made.

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McDonald’s-inspired Nike Book 2 bring Arizona Desert colors to your next everyday basketball sneaker

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Signature sneakers rarely manage to feel personal anymore. Most arrive overloaded with athlete branding and colorways engineered more for resale culture than everyday wear. Devin Booker’s Nike Book 2 collaboration with McDonald’s takes a surprisingly different route. Instead of leaning into fries-and-burgers nostalgia, the sneaker pulls inspiration from one of Arizona’s oddest landmarks — the turquoise-arched McDonald’s in Sedona — and turns it into a basketball shoe that feels more rooted in place than corporate crossover hype.

At first glance, the Nike Book 2 “Sedona” barely resembles a McDonald’s collaboration at all. The sneaker trades loud fast-food colors for sandy beige uppers, dusty earth tones, and soft turquoise accents inspired by the famous Sedona McDonald’s location, which swapped its golden arches for turquoise ones to better blend with the city’s iconic red rock surroundings. It’s the kind of hyper-specific regional detail that could have easily become gimmicky, but Booker’s growing signature line has consistently worked best when it stays connected to Arizona culture rather than chasing trends.

Designer: Nike x McDonald’s

The design itself continues the Book series’ understated approach to basketball footwear. Where many modern performance sneakers rely on exaggerated shapes and futuristic layering, the Book 2 keeps things clean and wearable. The low-cut silhouette looks closer to a lifestyle sneaker than a traditional on-court model, borrowing cues from retro Nike runners and skate shoes while still packing modern basketball tech underneath. Nike equips the sneaker with a forefoot Air Zoom unit, Cushlon 3.0 cushioning, and a lightweight molded upper designed around Booker’s preference for responsive movement and minimal bulk.

That balance between performance and casual wearability is what gives the Book line its identity. Booker has never approached his signature shoes like loud statement pieces; they feel more like sneakers designed by someone who genuinely cares how they look off the court. The “Sedona” colorway pushes that idea even further. The cracked leather details, aged textures, and muted desert palette make the sneaker feel intentionally lived-in, almost like something discovered on a road trip through Arizona rather than a highly manufactured sports collaboration.

McDonald’s also seems aware that the appeal here extends beyond basketball fans. Instead of limiting the partnership to standard product placement, the company built a broader campaign around Booker’s connection to the Southwest. Promotional visuals lean heavily into desert imagery, road-trip aesthetics, and surreal humor, including a campaign video featuring Booker wandering through Sedona alongside a silent Ronald McDonald appearance that somehow feels strange and perfectly on-brand at the same time.

The collaboration also arrives with a Friends & Family sweepstakes through the McDonald’s app, giving select customers access to an exclusive variation of the sneaker with the purchase of specialty beverages. A dedicated pop-up event tied to the release is also expected ahead of launch, reinforcing how brands increasingly treat sneaker drops more like cultural events than product launches. The McDonald’s x Nike Book 2 “Sedona” sneaker is scheduled to release on June 2 through Nike SNKRS and select retailers for $155.

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