Meet the sneaker-inspired Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo art car

Designer and influencer Sean Wotherspoon is all about fashionable streetwear with a vivid colour palette and unusual materials and has turned his creativity into designing his own personal Porsche Taycan 4 Cross Turismo.

Sean Wotherspoon first made his name with the Nike Air Max 97/1 sneaker he created in 2018. Aside from the design, what was unusual was the use of corduroy as the upper material, and this has become Wotherspoon’s trademark. He has been working with Adidas since 2020. In 2013, he opened the first Round Two Store in the US, a vintage shop for streetwear and sneakers.

The out-there exterior of this Porsche Art Car that was first revealed at South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas in March is painted in a colour block style reminiscent of a pair of sneakers. Now the interior of Wotherspoon’s Porsche art car project has been revealed showing the lively colour blocking of the exterior carrying through to the interior too.

The interior is awash with colours including Nash Blue, Sean Peach, Loretta Purple and Ashley Green with cork used on the dashboard, steering wheel and centre console to create a visual contrast. The unusual names of the paints have a personal connection, with each paint named after a member of Wotherspoon’s family.

While 1990s fabric of choice, corduroy also makes an appearance throughout in Atacama Beige. Corduroy and cork are materials Wotherspoon uses for his streetwear designs. Corduroy also has a long tradition at the luxury sports car maker, with the soft, ribbed material adorning the seat centres of the Porsche 356 as early as 1952. 

Wotherspoon, who is a staunch vegan wanted to create an interior that was completely leather-free, an option available to Taycan customers. 

“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,” says Robert Ader, Chief Marketing Officer at Porsche. “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.”

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

This partnership saw Sean Wotherspoon collaborating with the Style Porsche design team. Wotherspoon visited the Porsche Design Studio in Weissach, Germany several times where he also oversaw the physical creation of his art car onsite, spending time on the shopfloor for concept cars and the trim shop.

The Taycan 4 Cross Turismo designed by Wotherspoon is rounded off by elements from Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur. These include the 21-inch Cross Turismo Design wheels and the rear wiper cover – both painted in high-gloss Black – as well as the light strip with Porsche lettering in Black.

Porsche customers can implement similar projects with Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur’s Sonderwunsch programme which launched in 2021. One example is using the Paint to Sample Plus option to allow the four outside colours of Wotherspoon’s colour blocking exterior to be offered in the future.

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