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!
hey dan i was wondering if you could make rockstar energy drink custom kicks?
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.
I agree… the concept of ninja turtle shoes is awesome, but I dont love the design you made for that one
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
can you read?
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
I am trying to buy the cookie monster shoes but the wed site would not let me. What can i do to buy them????
Hi Daniel i denfinitely wanna have the bioshock theme(size 11) but do you also have a street fighter theme coz ur website is always under maintenance plz contact me! Thanks!
I was just wondering if the paints would wash off in the rain or wash off at all. I wouldn’t want to clean them and then the design would just wash off.
Good post! I really like it! Thanks
omg i love your shoes!!! but on ur store site when it askes for the size, what size do you mean? like is it male or female sizes? cuz im from america and im a girl and i want to be able to wear them, but i need to know what the gender size is… thank you soo much!!!
I was wondering do you customize chucks?
Do you ship to the US and if so whats the difference with US UK sizing and the price difference
Hi there
Please make some with the Kanye Bear on!
what currency is £ ????? i’m trying to convert it into american but i have no idea what country its from :/
£ ? really u have no idea??? Sterling, Pound or GBP….google it if you don’t know heheheh
Anyway – great site and great content – shame about the store – I’d really love the pac man!
It would show a tennis Corinthians Paulista, a football club in Brazil, FIFA World Champion in 2000, four national championships and 26 from São Paulo, with over 60 million fanatical fans, white or black, with purple and gold details, tks
I would also like something from Pink Floyd – The Dark Side of the Moon, Joe Cocker at Woodstock Festival and of course Ayrton Senna the greatest driver of Formula 1 of all time (also a fanatic fan of Corinthians Paulista)
references in
http://www.corinthians.com.br/site/
http://senna.globo.com/portal/indexFlash.asp
tks
[...] from low-fi Converse to the Dunks you see above. Most of his customized kicks start off as plain white trainers, and end up as videogame and cartoon character-inspired works of [...]
[...] from low-fi Converse to the Dunks you see above. Most of his customized kicks start off as plain white trainers, and end up as videogame and cartoon character-inspired works of art.The 22-year-old has been [...]
[...] from low-fi Converse to the Dunks you see above. Most of his customized kicks start off as plain white trainers, and end up as videogame and cartoon character-inspired works of [...]
Those kicks are awesome, on average, how much do they sell for?
how do you make the images/cartoon characters on the shoe?
photoshop?