2000words with Jake Danklefs of Dank Customs

On the other hand, your releases seem to be grouped or come in spurts. Is that intentional?

Uhm, yeah I don’t want to work on one thing at a time. If I get stuck working on one project, it becomes stale or boring which can fault my work, in my eyes. So I usually work on 3 projects at a time, thus they all get finished at the same time. Also I have noticed that if I finish a project, including photos, and post them over the weekend, they are soon forgot about with no buzz worthy shine. Posting during the week seems to be when you get more views. Kinda weird, get back to work ‘Merica!

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Rappers, pro ballers, celebrities, is it daunting to do work for the rich and famous? How do these orders come about?

They get a hold of me via email usually. Sometimes its people they know but most always its through email.

So do you have Lebron’s email? If not how did that project for his 2x Champion theme’d Lebron X come about?

Nah I dont have direct contact with him. I have contact through one of his friends and his manager. Basically they showed him my Instagram and it went from there. He liked a few things and made a few requests but ultimately he wanted a gold X if they won. This all went down when they were here in San Antonio for the playoffs.

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Seeing that he wore them on media day now we get to see the payoff of that as he is seen wearing them on Sports Illustrated for Kids. I’m pretty sure that is the first time a pair of custom sneakers been on a magazine cover. Has that sunk in yet?

Yeah that SIKids thing is crazy. I mean the day he wore them on media I got a call from my friend and he said he “thinks Bron is wearing the shoes today because he left the house with them.” I tore out of bed early and got the TV recording just in case. Soon after the day started, sure enough I start getting pics sent to me of him doing interviews in the shoes. Then a few weeks later now, I get a comment on IG from some random person saying that the November issue of SIKids has Bron on the cover in my shoes. Sure enough, there he is! I think the SI thing is the cherry. It hasn’t sunk in. Ill be in NY in November and its going to be weird seeing my creation on the feet of the reigning champ and MVP on the cover of a magazine in those new stands as I pass by.

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