I Used to Paint Sneakers

2003 - 2007

Through college I would make money here and there by buying bootleg Uptowns in the Garment District, painting them, and then selling them. At first it was for stuff like the Carribean Day Parade and random shops in Fulton Mall.

I had big plans on becoming a sneaker designer and had arranged for recruiters from Nike, Reebok, and Converse to check out my senior show. But about midway through the year I got scammed and lost almost all of my money. I could no longer afford to finish my industrial design thesis work, so I locked myself in an actual basement and tried to paint the best sneakers I could with the time I had. This is what came of that.

The show went okay, but a day or two after it opened, several of the sneakers were stolen right out of their glass cases in the school gallery. I very snooty curator told me the shoes’ “street value” wasn’t enough to merit investigation, so me and my roommate hit the block and bada bing, bada boom we found the guy that took ‘em and we got ‘em back. No one was hurt in the process, and I still have the shoes today.

If you liked this work,
you might also like these projects:

Attack!
Some of the more culturally and creatively interesting stuff that I’ve done in advertising.

Partner Quotes
For years my creative partner and I recorded the most absurd things the other one said.

Shut Up, We’re Blogging
Some writing I did around the age I painted these Sneakers.