Making Old Shoes Cool Again

Painting My First Pair

Everyone has a pair of old shoes they once wore every day, which now room with a pair of old socks and a ripped t-shirt in your bedroom closet. Or maybe they’re taking up space in a laundry room corner, or collecting dust out in the garage. I discovered my old pair of white LED light-up shoes in that very corner, acting as a shelf for cat hair and dust (I know, gross!). I hadn’t worn them in at least two years, and I suddenly had this light bulb moment. I had seen those expensive customized Nike Air Force 1’s all over Pinterest and really wanted a pair. I didn’t have $1,000 to shell out on a pair of shoes though, so I decided to make my own. I looked up a design that I liked, took out my acrylic paints and brushes, and started painting. I was nervous at first; nervous of messing up, nervous of not liking them and nervous of ruining a perfectly good pair of shoes. I took a chance and they turned out great! I sprayed them with a protective waterproof spray and started wearing them every day. In fact, to this day they’re my favorite pair of shoes that I own. As I started wearing the shoes in public, people couldn’t seem to help but notice. The compliments wouldn’t stop! People were asking me where I got them, if they were professionally painted, and thought that they were the Nike's that I had seen all over the internet! I was beaming with excitement! Everybody liked them, and I thought Hey, I could really do something with this. These were my first pair of hand-painted shoes.

My First Customer

Earlier this year I created an Instagram page (@emmas._aesthetics) where I began to sell my art. In December, around Christmas time, I got a message from someone that I had talked to around school. He told me about how he liked my work and remembered my shoes, and he had an idea. That was when I got my first customer. The next day we made a deal; he would buy the shoes, and I would make his idea come to life. At first, he was all over the place with ideas, but we narrowed it down to bright pink flamingos (an interesting choice, but I was going to make it look amazing). I decided to add green tropical leaves to have more variety and to look cooler. He dropped the shoes off the next morning and I got to painting. It took a lot longer than I expected to finish them, but it was all worth it. I freehanded everything and made it up as I went along, instead of drawing everything out first. The shoes were black, so I had to make a base of white for everything that I painted. I started with the leaves, did each shoe, and then moved onto the flamingos, adding and mixing colors along the way. I sent my customer pictures as I painted. We added things here and there that he thought were missing until they were perfect. I sprayed them with two coats of protective topcoat, and about 3 months after the dropoff they were ready to be picked up (A long time, I know, but that’s a lot of work!). They turned out amazing! He loved them so much, and when he came we tried to do a little photoshoot. I also took pictures on my own of the shoes to really show them off.

The Newest Project

My newest in-progress project is revamping a pair of well-loved bike shoes. I just started them last week and they’re turning out even cooler than I imagined. My customer wanted germs and sent me a reference picture. My goal is to finish them in the next week, making this a two and half week project (not bad!).