Custom Sneakers - what's this all about?

So this may be your first introduction to custom sneakers and you are asking yourself – “what’s this all about”? Ok, let me walk you through this.

Custom sneakers are the child of sneaker Culture. Sneaker Culture itself was born in the 80’s which was yes – when Michael Jordan came on the scene. The Air Jordan brand immediately created Sneaker Collectors – Collectors created Hype…Hype drove demand and then it just spiraled out of control.

Now Hype…Hype is it’s own story. You will hear words like “hype”, “sneaker hype” and “hypebeast” all used interchangeably but hype behind sneakers gone as far to have caused sneaker riots.

Hype behind sneakers have gotten people a lot of money from reselling their kicks, respect, girlfriends and even beat up.

The excitement behind sneakers is sometimes flat out amazing and there are lots of stories to back this statement up including but not limited to the infamous Nike Pigeon Dunk Riot in New York City.

The story behind custom sneakers, like most things in sneaker culture has an interesting beginning.

What first started out as “I’ve got to keep my sneakers clean” developed into “let me paint my kicks in order to extend the life of my sneakers”. Yes – poverty was a big driving force behind how customizing sneakers even started. You had kids that simply could not afford a new pair of sneakers and well as the saying goes – necessity is the mother of all inventions.

So, rather than settling with the reality of not being able to afford a new pair of sneakers, kids started thinking “hmm could I customize shoes?”painting their shoes. First it was painting kicks in their original color and that developed into painting their sneakers in different colors and well that too started something that would spiral out of control!

You know what, let me turn this over to Bobbito Garcia and Tinker Hatfield to get more insight on this (yes these names WILL be on the test so write them down).

This momentum led to kids experimenting with different ways to customize their sneakers whether it be using markers, paint, different color laces or different lacing techniques. And the techniques of customizing your sneakers have just continued to grow from there.

This leads you to Proof Culture where we have grabbed the torch from the people that laid this path before us and we take it VERY SERIOUSLY. We live & breath Sneaker Culture and you will see that in our work and the level of respect we have for the Sneaker game, our product and ALWAYS our customers.

We hope you enjoyed this custom sneaker article and don’t hesitate to ask any questions as we love to talk Sneakers, Custom Sneakers, Custom trainers – whatever it is that you call them!

You can order Custom Sneakers from us by visiting our Flight Crew Custom Sneaker order form.

To learn more on Sneaker Culture – check out the following

• Just for Kicks – (you can watch it on Netflix) & some clips are on YouTube click here
• Soled Out – click here
• Air Jordans – A documentary click here
• Michael Jordan talking about Air Jordans – click here