Customs made on Nike brand shoes.
Everywhere you look on this custom is like a new experience you didn’t notice the first time. Made as a gift to his girlfriend District Customs brought the feel of a very loved decade in this custom Nike Lebron 9 titled What the 90s. The hand painted effort using the Summit Lake Hornets colorway as a base combined numerous patterns, so many that we are not gonna count.
If this shoe looks familiar and you never saw it the first time in 2008 or spotted them in the streets, what you saw likely was not authentic. These are from a time when the Nike Dunk was the choice shoe amongst both sneaker customizers and sneakerheads. DEZ, a graffiti artist known for putting his work on everything from walls to kicks, made these “Do the Dew” Nike Dunks as a complementary piece to his Mountain Dew Green Label Art winning bottle design.
The stigma of customizing a high dollar after market sneaker went out the door sometime last year starting with customized Yeezy IIs and a pair of these same Nike Air Mags. Sneakerheads that will never get these shoes are probably crying “Why ruin a classic wah wah wah!” But a driving factor of customs is that they aren’t meant for everyone, and often times they are designed for one person. But surely this Air Mag by Kickasso Kustoms modeled after the “Elite” concept used on Nike’s premier basketball models would fly off the shelves in 2015 self-lacing or not.
Summer is here so naturally the customs are getting brighter. District Customs is back, this time with his custom Nike Lebron 9 Low “Horizon.” Using the Lebron 9 Low “Mint” from the Easter pack as a base, DC painted each shoe a different colorway to fit the same theme.
One of the easier “concepts” in the custom sneaker world is that of the color swap. It involves the customizing a pair of sneakers into a different colorway based on an officially released colorway of a different model of shoes. Even though the creativity needed to complete a color swap is basic, the skills needed to pull off a decent end result take some practice to achieve.
Do mess with Texas based customizer Jake of Dank Customs when it comes to customizing your favorite Nike Air Max retro. His latest customer request creation is full of the state of Texas pride. Starting with the red, white and blue colorway the midsoles were painted blue with black added to the groove lines. Upon the upper you see one of the better takes at recreating Nike’s elephant print with the black on gray design painted after being engraved. Red on the Swooshes and liners bring together the look.
Will any team be able to cool off Lebron from getting his 2nd NBA Championship this June? So far it appears not. In celebration of the Heat’s 2013 playoff run BlackLion Customs created this custom titled after the classic “He’s On Fire!” line from the video game NBA Jam. The Lebron X has seen lots of customs that cover the entire upper in a painted airbrushed design but BlackLion chose to keep it a bit simpler.
After last month’s tragedy at the Boston Marathon Christian of Fuda Customs chose to use his growing customizing skills to show support of the bombings victims. He customized this originally all white Nike Air Force one with a skyline of downtown Boston, Massachusetts superimposed across a background of an American flag. Along the heels is the phrase “Boston Strong” in white lettering. The design is being auctioned off to be re-created in the winners size. All proceeds will be given to The One Fund Boston.