One thing I do outside of the classroom is paint shoes. I started when I was bored out of my mind one day after dislocating my shoulder and saw a YouTube video on custom shoes and thought “shit if they can do it I probably can too”.
I had never painted prior to my first pair of shoes. I am in no way shape or form a painter or an artist, I just impulsively start new projects that are out of my comfort zone.
Once I decided I wanted to paint a pair of shoes, I needed a pair of shoes to paint. I looked at my shoe rack and shrugged. None of them fit the criteria. I wanted a leather shoe that was big enough to see whatever it is I would paint. The shoe also needed to be popular so they have relevance. I decided to go with the modern day Nike Cortez, the Nike Air Force 1.
They were cheap for sneakers which was another deciding factor. $100. I waited a week for the shoes to come. In the meantime I bought Angelus Custom Leather Acrylic Paint and a few brushes. I also started googling images to find ideas.
Idea one (above): I saw these and got inspiration to do something purposefully messy or graffiti. I still did not know what the theme would be.
Idea Two (above): I saw these and thought “oh snap” and changed my mind. I wanted to make cartoony shoes.
Once the shoes came in I took them out of the box and looked at them for a while. All of my ideas did not seem to fit. None of them really spoke to me so I sat frustrated. I thought I had wasted my money. But then I had an idea. It was spectacular…in my head. I was going to do memorabilia from the 2010’s since the decade would be over in a few months. I thought about albums and things that I enjoyed this decade. Travis Scott’s album Astroworld, DreamVille and J. Cole, Post Malone are artists that have influenced me and kept me motivated when I needed it. So I thought of ways to incorporate them with other things I thought defined the 2010’s.
I started drawing (in pencil) some ideas I thought of including. Gucci, my area code, the Astroworld merch writing, a money bag which reminded me of one old graffiti art I saw when I was younger and the roman numeral for five standing for GTA, a game my friends and I played growing up together.
Once I masked everything and decided what I wanted to do, I began painting. Again, the Gucci logo because why not, and a bunch of popular apps and social medias from the decade.
Clearly I got way to carried away. Over 34 hours (practically straight) of painting while thinking I was Leonardo Di Vinci, this was the end result. I was proud but was still cringing when I looked at them. The first people I showed them to actually gave me really good feedback and said they would buy a pair.
I thought to myself about that for a while. I could turn this into a business. While I was painting I actually really enjoyed it, and if people like them then why shouldn’t I.
I am still taking orders if you are serious and are willing to spend the money on a 1-of-1 pair of shoes that can be whatever you want (as long as its reasonable).
Life of Brian 