Alot of people have been asking how I customize the trainers seen on my blog. So I thought I would add a quick guide of the process. The guide shown below is my own method of customizing and all customizers have different styles.
I always go for plain white trainers, they are the easiest to paint on. You can in theory customize any colour trainer with enough work, but generally speaking, the lighter the colour of trainers, the better. So lets say I’m customizing a pair of plain white Nike Dunks. First thing I do is strip the shoe of the ‘wax like’ coating over the leather using acetone. Nail polish remover can be used, but is no where near as strong as acetone. You will know when you are down to the leather as the grain of the leather will start to rub away and turn grey. Now that your trainers are all ready to be painted. I use Angelus leather paints but alot of customizers use paint markers or acrylic paints, as they are quite flexible. Apply the paint in thin layers, time between each layer should only be around a minute. You can mask off areas of the trainers and always airbrush larger areas as I do. I use a pin brush for finer details or a marker, sharpie markers are perfect. Once I have the shoe looking the way I want, I wipe them down with a wet cloth very lightly and then apply a layer of clear acrylic using the airbrush, this gives the trainer a nice shiny finish similar to the one you removed from the shoe with acetone.
Lace up the shoe and send them away!
If you would like to know how to customize in more detail, email me at daniel.reese@mail.com.
Hi Daniel
I was having a look at the custom jobs that you have on your front page, I was wondering they look amazing. but are they all real jobs & not photoshop works that you have manipulated on to a white dunk. I may be wrong but if you are like you say painting the shoes, how are you painting the meshes on the tongue of the dunks on the main page.
Surely these are photoshop impressions!!!!
just want you to clarify this for me.
Great artwork thou, im not taking that away from you.
Reub1
Hi, yer those seen on my website are photoshop mock ups. I do paint them but i use Nike id to custom the soles and tongues!
Dan
Cool Dan, thanks for clearing that up. I thought the photoshop ones look really tight. It must take a long time to get a pair looking like that.
Great site & work you have here.
Reub1
Of course you use acetone. But doesn’t it damage your screen?
If you really do what you’re telling, why don’t you picture some of the ‘real ones’ for us to see?
Visit my facebook page, I have a few pictures on there, also, you can watch me on ustream tomorrow!
Please can you show us pics of the ACTUAL UNPHOTSHOPED SHOES? please
Hey Dan,
I was just wondering if the real deal shoes look anywhere near the photoshopped ones, because those look sick.
theses shoes are sick man!!! I love them!!!
You should make some Jack Skellington shoes that would be real sick!!!
Make a Katamari shoe!!!!
I second the Katamari shoe!!!
Make an upgraded version of the ninja turtle ones, kinda like nike did w/ the donatellos w/ his eyes in the swoosh.
Something like that.
holy :O
u have some nice kicks on here damm
its bad u need to be real good in painting for this
i love to get myself some bone thug shoes
Question: Do you use an airbrush to apply the paint? And are there a specific kind of paint markers to use/avoid?
Thanks
if you could sell me those yoshi shoes or give me th link to bye them that would be cool
that is amazing. ive always wanted to know how they do that [create amazing artworks on nikes and all]. ive been plannin to do the same but seeing as im not that great at paintin i never really wanted to buy a pair of white nikes to do it on but maybe next time =]
thanks though for the insight in how you customize shoes.
Hi, I just tried to e-mail you in relation to a question I had relating to this page, but for some reason I can not fully figure out a way to talk to you. If however you see my e-mail address, will you send me a e-mail? Thanks.
I would like some of those super mario ones, how do I acquire them?
hey nice work! i would like to how much for the Yoshi kicks? they r real hot