Sean Wotherspoon’s sneaker world with Porsche’s Taycan 4 Cross Turismo

While the striking exterior painted in a colour block style was already revealed at the SXSW in March, Porsche now unveiled the interior of their all-new Art car, a Taycan 4 Cross Turismo created by streetwear designer and influencer Sean Wotherspoon. The designer first made his name with the Nike Air Max 97/1, which he created in 2018, and its corduroy upper material that has become his trademark. He is now working with Adidas and as the sneaker/streetwear king, it’s no surprise that he would reflect his sneakerhead roots both on the car’s exterior and interior.

“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.” – Robert Ader, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) at Porsche

Creating the art car

The collaboration, initiated by the Porsche team, brought together the Style Porsche designers and Sean Wotherspoon, who visited the Porsche Design Studio in Weissach several times and organised the world premiere of the car on Instagram. Wotherspoon also oversaw the physical creation of his art car onsite, both on the shop floor for concept cars and in the trim shop in Weissach. 

When I look at something, I examine how I can change it and elevate it to a new level. 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.” – Sean Wotherspoon

Interestingly, VR technology was used to try out various exterior colours on a model car – but of course Wotherspoon brought a lot of his own inspirations to the table. “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 colour breaks up the large area,” said Volker Müller, Head of Colour and Trim at Style Porsche. 

The colour-block exterior

Unveiled at SXSW in March, the striking exterior painted in a colour block style is one of the highlights of the art car. In order to make sure that the colours were exactly what he envisioned, Wotherspoon sent the corresponding Pantone reference codes to Porsche, who then used the paint shop’s mixing bench to recreate them. The colours were then applied to ‘paint frogs’ so that Wotherspoon could see them in person and evaluate them under the Porsche Design Studio lighting, which can be adjusted from daylight to artificial light. 

The paints each have rather unusual names, stemming from a personal background: “After we explained the importance of having unique names, Sean named the paints after members of his family,” said Volker Müller. This gave way to the Nash Blue, Sean Peach, Loretta Purple and Ashley Green colour names. 

Interior textures

The Porsche design team and Wotherspoon had the great idea of continuing the colour blocking concept on the interior of the car, with the same colour scheme. Added to this flashy combo are Wotherspoon’s trademark materials: corduroy and cork, which he also uses for his streetwear. Corduroy has a long-standing tradition at Porsche, as it adorned the seat centres of the Porsche 356 as early as 1952 – in this art car, it was added in the colour Atacama Beige, which Porsche used in the 911 Targa 4S Heritage Edition in 2020. 

The cork presented a challenge to Porsche’s trimmers as it only comes in rolls and had to be fitted to complex shapes such as the dashboard. Ultimately, the neutral colour of the corduroy accompanied with the cork that was added on the dashboard, steering wheel and centre control create a visual contrast to the striking colour block. The roof lining, seat centres and sun visors are also upholstered with the corduroy. Because Sean Wotherspoon is vegan, he also wanted to make sure that the interior be leather-free, which the Taycan customers can choose as an option. 

Customisation 

The Taycan 4 Cross Turismo art car designed by Wotherspoon was also rounded off elements from Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur, including the 21-inch Cross Turismo Design wheels and rear wiper cover both painted in high-gloss black, as well as the light strip with Porsche lettering in Black. 

In this art car, customers will be able to implement comparable elements within Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur’s Sonderwunsch programme , a 2021 reinterpretation of the legendary service of the same name from the 1970s. For example, they can use the Paint to Sample Plus option in order to allow the four outside colours to be offered in the future. 

Apart from Wotherspoon’s striking design, the Taycan Cross Turismo is also the all-rounder of electric sports cars, and as such it possesses all the strengths of the Taycan (such as superior power and range), but with more headroom for rear-seat passengers and larger luggage compartment capacity. The all-wheel-drive chassis and its air suspension also saw a height adjustment, and added design elements for off-roading like wheel arch covers and side skirts make this vehicle even more appealing. 

Pictures: Porsche