Our promotional video for a Nike Air Mockup

This uncommissioned piece was created by Jumbla's Senior Motion Designer, Cornel Swoboda, as a means of experimenting with a product well known to many: the Nike Air trainer. The rhino is a surrealist motif that is open to interpretation.

Perhaps it’s a symbol of strength and true athleticism. After all, the shoe is a soft and flexible object, but it is inherently durable and tough.

Or, perhaps this animal is depicted because Cornel was wanting to explore the 'living and breathing' sense your feet have when enveloped in quality trainers. All we know is that the rhino embodies many different attributes - some literal, some visceral.

As the video progresses, the animal starts to fly - capturing the essence of the 'air' in Nike Air - and it takes on different shapes and textures. Among them are the iconic perforations (air holes) and metallics. A jellybean, an armadillo, an astronaut: our floating rhino comes to resemble a range of different things - some intentional, some incidental.

All the while, its clueless and at times dumbfounded expression seems to suggest it has no idea what is happening: 'Why am I morphing into a shoe?' Alas, it’s too late - the transformation ensues and the rhino who opened the sequence is now replaced by a wearable product.