Shoes are really trivial when it comes to disscusing many social issues like life, death, war and peace. Although it can be interesting to see a pair of custom shoes actually bring awareness to historical events. At first glance these custom Nike Air Jordan VI’s by Philippines based shoe customizer MDVL may just look like a pair of shoes glorifying death and bloodshed. Looking closer and reading of the context details shows they stand as memory of the deaths that achieved freedom. One can notice a 1945 on the tongues that is the year the Battle of Manila took place from February 3rd to March 3rd in the Philippines. Over 100,000 people died in freeing the country from Japanese occupation. You may be thinking how such a dark looking shoe is a good thing?
The custom shoes themselves started out as white and red AJ VI’s that had the side panels desconstructed, removed and then a black elephant print like material sewn in the original leathers place. They were then covered in dark black paint and the tongue pieces were replaced with those made of leather and painted with the imagery to represent the Battle of Manila. Of course the design may not be for everyone but their creation likely gave at least one person the desire to know more about what happened during the battle.
For more work from MDVL checkout his website here: http://www.mdvlindustries.com/
