Shoe Vader: the Empire Kicks Back

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Well, I guess Facebook is good for more than just not working, it is also good for promoting your hobby.

Enter Christi, a friend of an internet friend, who saw some picks of kicks on facebook and she wanted a pair for her husband. So these are my first out-of-state shoes for someone I have never met.
Cory works for Blizzard, the greatest videogame company of all time. I should have graduated from college with a minor in Starcraft. I certainly put more hours in on that game than I did in many of my courses. So I hope these SciFi themed shoes fit it over on their campus (along with the giant bronze statue of an Orc astride a wolf).
I am particularly happy about how the translucent buttons from the chest plate turned out.
In the interest of full disclosure, my brother also works for Blizzard, which ended up saving me on postage as I was able to deliver the shoes to him when I was in the O.County when I was there for a wedding. (more on that later)

But all of these connections to Blizzard makes me wonder why I haven't done a starcraft-themed shoe(Perhaps it is that pesky copyright infringement law)? Maybe I will do a diablo themed shoe with unicorns shooting rainbows. Any takers?

Arrow Kicks

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Which way did he go? Some Vans for Brad.



Sometimes fun designs don't need to be overly thought out. Vans has a new line of cyclist vans. They don't lend themselves to detail will, but bold graphics work. I really like the black white (with a little silver).

The shoes come with black AND white laces. I think he should put in the black laces. What do you think?





Here is Brad, Brad has got a lot going on. He's teaching, starting an Italian tie company (I can't wait) and he's a fine salesman to boot (get it?). I think he could do any of those things well. He is figuring out which way to go. I hope these shoes will take him there.

Analog v. Digital

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ANALOG VS. DIGITAL

ANALOG(I know, there is at least one not-analog thing there)



DIGITAL

In some ways these are the most autobiographical shoes that I have made. This could easily be done for anybody, but with your stuff, or as Steve Brule says, you could make a shoe of yours.
The collection of stuff idea is not my own. I saw it over at this guys website, but he got it from Kayleigh(?) here.

I'd like to give her proper credit (where it is due). Anyone know her?

A Shoe is a shoe is a shoe

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Since I already used one rose reference. These were crafted for a lovely lady. I wanted to give her a rose, and she got this half dozen.



She has had these for about six months or so, and they have held up pretty well so far.


turns out, she just wanted them for her cat. (wink emoticon) I'm kind of scared of that cat, he's cute, but he looks like Hitler.

Imperial Walkers

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Shout out to Smythers who came up with the name for these. As an experiment I use 10$ Walmart shoes (called no boundaries). I am wearing these RIGHT NOW (as I write, not as your read).

A shoe by any other name...

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People have been asking me what type of shoe to use. Up to this point I have mostly worked on vans (which have a customizeable option). Specifically I have mostly worked on white vans and blue vans, mostly of the slip-on variety. (I get them here, but you can also get them here). There is no reason why I use vans other than there is a vans store near my house and they make a canvas shoe. However I have worked on other types of shoes, other colors, and other cuts (see more coming soon). I have done shoes for children and shoes in a size 16, which I loved with lots of canvas.

The truth is that other than the simple styling, I don't love vans. Their color and fit and inconsistent and even though I have more than 10 pairs I still have to try them on each time. The good news is even if they don't fit, they are slip ons which is a very forgiving design.

I have worked on Chucks and just to test a theory, I tried a pair of vans knock-offs from Walmart. They worked pretty well, but bled a little bit. you'll see those soon. I'd like to try some on Tom's Shoes more becaus of what they are doing. I don't think their design is ideal for drawing on. I'd really like to try some designs for men and women on Treetorns, (I think I want to figure out a medium that works on rubber boots). The key is minimal design and a lot of canvas to draw/paint on.

The YargBott 2000

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Direct from the year 2000 comes the Yargbott.

These are a custom design for my brother Ethan. We did an extreme brother makeover the other day and I threw in a free pair of shoes as part of the fun. It was fun flipping through sketches and deciding on what he liked, and what fit his personality. He definitely didn't want "hipster" shoes and definitely no Star Wars. I like the idea of a screaming robot. Ethan gets full credit for the speech bubble. It was a fun collaboration.


His feet are different sizes and while shopping at the Vans store in Fashion Place mall we learned how inconsistent Vans can be in their color and their sizing.