The jumps a few recon sneaker customizers have made in the past year have been huge. Moving away from the classic silhouettes of a Dunk or Air Force 1 to more technical sneakers. One who is steadily rising ahead of the pack of sneaker customizers in general is that of JBF Customs. His latest resume builder is a complete reconstruction of an adidas Crazy 8 retro for one of their signature athletes, Iman Shumpert of the NY Knicks.
Nike Roshe Runs have continued to grow in popularity since their successful launch last year. The model went from basic colorways in limited quantities to what now seems an endless array of shades, patterns, and materials. Jeremy Hedin, better known as @whatthekicks, commissioned Emilio “PK” Zuniga to create a pair that transcended what we’ve seen so far from the running shoe.
The Air Jordan line has been getting its taste of animal skin as of late in the custom sneaker world. The most recent is the Air Jordan IV in the classic “bred” colorway. Created by Dominic Chambrone aka The Shoe Surgeon this Jordan retro was reconstructed with an overlay of black python skin over the entire black nubuck upper. The back heel tabs and eyelet wings were kept while the Air Jordan flight tongue tags were replaced with those of The Shoe Surgeons logo lasered into red suede. Exotic.
Somehow, someway, snakeskin almost always looks good on shoes. Yet Nike definitely has messed up a few times especially on womens releases, while adidas almost always has snakeskin looking good. But what about customizers? Usually they know how to make it right. That is what lakebay2 of the NikeTalk Sneaker Art Forum recently finished up: a pair of Dunks with two different kinds of snakeskin that work. Though do not get too excited PETA members the skin appears to be faux, as in not real, man made to appear like snakeskin. Using brown in and black on the entire upper is accented by a bright yellow and green. Plus in the dark you can see the laces and stitching glow a bright green to go with the sole. The tongue tags are pretty sweet too saying: Bite Me.
More pics after the jump!
