Before everyone you know carried a smartphone with thousands of hours of music, we had the Walkman. The portable music player was the great-grand-pappy of the iPod, allowing users to listen to their own music, one cassette tape at a time. Apparently, the upcoming PlayStation Vita shares a designer with the influential music device.

A post on the EU PlayStation Blog (via Push Square) reveals that Takashi Sogabe was part of the team to design the look and feel of the Vita. Sogabe has been in the company for 27 years working on industrial design, and he was behind the original Walkman.

Various iterations of the Vita included a PSPgo-like sliding mechanic, a clamshell, an all-metal exterior rendered unusable by the 3G and Wi-Fi functions, and touch pads in place of analog sticks. Ultimately, Sogabe says they decided that analog sticks are more accurate.