Boston based customizer Sab One brings together the world of Air Jordan with that of RAW Rolling Papers. The classic Air Jordan 1 was given a painted addition of tan to it’s common red, black, and white combination. The biggest detail added is the RAW logo in red across the back in seemingly spot on detail down to the speckled edges of the lettering.
For the most part the majority of customs are created on brand new deadstock shoes as the final presentation is better without creases or worn soles. But these “Staple Pigeon” Nike Air Force III’s by sneaker customizer Hybrid creator of the brand KLR WHALES go against that school of thought. With the idea to give these shoes continued life this custom became a part restoration as the base was a decently worn and yellowed pair of kicks.
You’ll have to step your game up if you want these. Step up as in be good enough in some artistic or creative way that another company wants to work with you. PMK Customs worked with shoe brand Puma to offer Philadelphia based hip hop recording artist Meek Mill a set of two shoes inspired by his recent Dreams and Nightmares album.
Behind each pair of customs sneakers you see across the web today is a unique story of a sneaker customizer. Many times the story starts with someone that had an interest in sneakers growing up thanks to basketball or possibly the footwear companies marketing tactics. Somewhere down the line they likely also had a passion for creating, drawing, or painting. Despite those similarities each has a different path on how they figured out what it takes to make a wearable custom sneaker.
Ben Smith of Brush Footwear has added another name to his list of clientele by this 1 of 1 camo custom with Complex Magazine. The all black leather Supra Falcon skate shoe was given a bit more color with a dark gray camouflage hand painted on the back heels. A fine detail of the Complex logo also hand painted in a spot on attempt may seem strange but the branding was used as they were given away across Complex’s social networks last week. A matching hand painted hat went to the winner too.
Remember the days when custom sneakers mostly meant Dunks, Air Force 1s, canvas Vans and Chuck Taylors? If not then you probably stumbled across custom sneakers pretty recently as the modern technical basketball shoe seems to be THE base of choice the past year and a half. High price or not the top Nike basketball sneakers for court action have gotten the casual custom treatment high and low. The elder statesmen Kobe hasn’t seen his kicks get all the attention of say Lebrons but he has one here and there. The most recent is a “Deep Space” theme customization on the Nike Kobe VII by JustBeast Customs.
Last month Noldo Customs set Instagram a fire with a simple addition of black to the white midsole of the Air Jordan XI bred retro. Orders surely came rushing in with many others inspired to give the look a shot on their own pairs. This time a customer request allowed Noldo to team up with NYCE Society on a similar design on the XI low. The previously all white with red sole XI low release from last summer was given a snakeskin stitched overlay upon the white patent leather by NYCE Society. The black and red skin was complimented by Noldo painting the white upper, tongues, and midsoles a la the blacked out bred XI.
It’s not ALL about basketball shoes you know? A market yet to be tapped into by sneaker cutomizers is that of one of the world’s oldest sports, golf. But a a golf brand by the name of Kikkor has a keen marketing team as they hired Social Statement to customize a pair of their golf shoes. Based off the biggest weekend in the sport that just wrapped up, Dez of Social Statement took their hip silhouette and gave it a look of The Masters.