Milan Design week has grown into something much bigger than a fair for furnishings and interiors. Every year, droves of the culture industries’ finest descend on the city seeking the cutting edge of contemporary design, these days offered by an array of brands you might not expect.

Case in point: OTW by Vans exhibiting an immersive multi-sensory installation at the Triennale Milano to celebrate the release of its latest forward-looking revamp, the Old Skool 36 FM.

The OTW arm of the brand is no stranger to highly creative initiatives. A marble skatepark at the foot of Basilica de Sacré-Cœur comes to mind. Their latest endeavor in Milan paid homage to a different founding principal: music.

Titled ‘Checkered Future: Frequency Manifest,’ the installation was developed by design director Wilio Perron and sound designer Tim Hecker. The piece spotlights the ‘visual architecture of sound’ in a confined space using a synchronized lighting and hydraulic mirror system, moving in coordination with an experimental soundtrack. Released steam makes the shape of each light beam all the more visible, and the space itself morphs as the mirror segments shift, lower, or rotate.

In a state of full immersion, the installation makes good on its promise to allow viewers to ‘see’ sound. The coordination between the physical space and the auditory experience blurs barriers between seeing and hearing. Sonic waves take visual form as dynamic light displays, space makes noise when the hydraulics kick in.

The shoe this work announces is deeply inspired by the shape of sound as well, with waveforms and vibrations taking the form of stitching and shoe structure. The reimagined waffle pattern could easily be mistaken for a frequency read out.

The Old Skool 36 FM, which will be available on April 11, is part of a larger effort by Vans to innovate through experimentation and creative collaboration. The new shoe returns to the design ethos of the original Vans Style 36 (later renamed The Old Skool) and reimagines a product for the future, founded on the past.

Forward looking design components include the 3D-injected structure sidestripe, a reengineered upper a tongue, and a componentized construction that can be disassembled at the end of the shoe’s life. Displayed beside the style it revamps in softly glowing light boxes, the stark differences don’t hide a family resemblance.

The installation was not the only sonic event Vans hosted at design week. Later, out in the Triennale garden, the grand balcony became a stage backed by a massive checkerboard motif realized in a series of mirrored panels. Performances by Björk, Vegyn, and Evissimax were forms of immersive sonic experiences most of the guests were more familiar with, although after a session in the installation piece the conventional light shows of DJ events don’t hit quite the same.