Minecraft has hit the big 15! What better way to celebrate than give Steve some Kix? Or more realistically, hiking boots that are modified to be more like regular sneaks with a design that stands out?

Since Minecraft is 15, I gave the Kix a ruby-esque motif, to fit with the gem anniversary tradition...yeah that ore is obsolete in the game, but gotta love a small retro callback. And speaking of retro I based them off old Air Jordan models! I'm not really proud of how the design came out in the end, because I didn't want to make it too similar to Mario's.

I wanted to add hands, like in the Corocoro manga, and with Wreck-it Ralph's style of blocky video game characters, but after showing the sketch to the others, they were mixed on the decision, and pointed out that the Kix was the only detailed thing in terms of the drawing series' purpose. I made the effects pixel-like so they blend in well, too.

I also applied the logic to the Kix, but to keep the "pixel-like" feel, representation the transition from 8 to 16 bit graphics, fitting with the theme of "progress". while making the shoes look "blocky", I noticed it loosely resembled the Air Shoes power-up item from Sonic Adventure 2, so I wanted to put that into the design. I wanted to go for a "hiking" pose but I went for a "going into battle" pose in the end, going well with the sword.