Long Form

An interview between a great style icon from the DFW area and I, we discussed how sneakers have evolved over the few years they have existed and how many companies seem to try and profit from social movements.

I sat down with him and asked a range of questions going from ‘Why did you get involved in the world of sneakers?’ to ‘What are your thoughts on how large companies are taking over the custom sneaker culture?’ As Chris prepares to collaborate with Complex for a secret project, he breaks down the story of the how’s and whys to his sneaker journey:

Me: So as I was looking through your Instagram and I’ve noticed that you have been into sneakers for a couple of years, what sparked that?

Chris: I have always had an interest in shoes, playing soccer since I was four really cemented what kind of style of shoe I preferred and what colorways appear attractive to my eye. But if it really comes down to sneaker head culture, I got that from my brother. He started buying crazier shoes that would catch your eye or just simply looked weird because of the colors that were on the sneakers and that just stayed with me growing up, from simple black Pumas to legendary Nike Air Force One’s, he had shoes to go with whatever outfit he had. Seeing all that craziness happening in such a small canvas is what made me get into the entire culture, so much so that it even made me go to college and study design.

Me: What about the DFW area made you want to set up shop and stay?

Chris: To be honest, DFW is pretty much a giant melting pot of cultures from around the world. I only have two years living here and I have met people from France and even New Zealand, it is crazy too think that such a small area of the country can hold up to hundreds of years of traditions and history. Which I use as inspiration to do many of my customs; depending on the customer and what he wants in his shoe I ask him of his racial background and what he holds close to his heart. I guess to keep this short, I stayed and set up shop here because there is so many different cultures here that it could be considered limitless, the only rival city I see competing with Dallas on culture mixes would be Houston but I just can’t handle the humidity of that place!

Me: Talking about how you approach your clients and what they want in their shoes, how was the experience of your first every custom that you sold to someone?

Chris: The first ever custom I did were actually just normal plain white ‘old-skool’ vans and the client gave me complete creative freedom, which was very nice to be honest with you. The only thing the client wanted incorporated into the design was an Aztec deity and the one I chose was the flying feathered serpent named Quetzalcoatl; try saying that correctly five times in a row, I could barely get to three! But yeah having him as my first client was very good and kind of set up my standards for any future clientele.

Me: You said that your first client asked for an Aztec deity, has anyone else asked for any other type of deity from their heritage?

Chris: When people ask me to put some kind of deity, it is always kind of risky because you don’t want to offend them with your design of that deity. I always let them know that I will be drawing them in my style and that sometimes might be off-putting, thankfully all of my clients are fans of my work and haven’t had any trouble with the end results. Honestly, it is more troubling pitting political messages on their sneakers rather than religious or heritage themes since of how split things are right now with the political climate. I’ve had red (Republican) and blue (Democrat) clients and I’ve had to turn down a couple of them because of the message they wanted on their shoes.

Me: What were the messages that those clients wanted? Were they racially charged?

Chris: Some of them were and those I did not even hesitate to reject; I don’t have a lot of rules when it comes to designing customs but coming for someone’s skin color or heritage is definitely a big no. some of them are actually pretty cool messages and those I definitely do, like pro-choice stuff, pride theme designs and BLM (Black Lives Matter) designs. Basically, if it doesn’t involve people getting hurt physically and/or emotionally then I am all in for the design.

Me: Can you elaborate on what are some of those political designs you were asked to do? What went into making them happen?

Chris: Well they were each very different from each other, so all three of those themes had a different creative process. The Black Lives Matter was probably the more complex one out of all of them, the client wanted a mural of different African American heroes on the outer side of the shoe and a mural of inspirational rappers on the inner side. So first I had to figure out how to fit all the people the client wanted in the mural, then sketch out both murals and modify it to fit into the shoe. Finding the color palette was also pretty challenging for that because I didn’t want to make it like a unicorn puked all over the shoe and some faces happened to be there, so I went monochromatic to keep it slick and simple. The other two designs were mainly pattern based, especially the pride month design in which the customer just wanted the rainbow color pattern all over the shoe with smiley faces scatter around the entire shoe.

Me: Since we are in the topic of political designs, what do you think of big companies coming in and using those campaigns to release new lines of clothing and shoes?

Chris: A lot of people I know actually get really bothered by that because they believe they’re just cashing in on people’s beliefs, which I understand and to some extent agree with, but I believe that its overall a good thing. Big companies bring more awareness and eyes to the issue in hand, yes some of them bring out lazy designs that is literally they’re basic shoe with an emblem or flag that represents the issue being talked about, but even when they do that most companies donate some of the profits that that specific merchandise makes to organizations that support the cause. The big thing that also helps a lot from big companies dipping their toes into this sneaker and apparel culture is that they focus a lot in social media marketing and that really boosts the performance of custom shoe makers like myself. Through the use of the shared hashtags that big companies use as well as individual creators, people can see my work on the explore pages of any social media platform which also brings a lot more eyes to my page and most of the times newer customers.

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