Customized Sneaker: Nike SB Dunk Low

Customizing sneakers is great fun! I'm referring to the part where you get to paint it. Everything before that is HARD WORK. My fingers almost came off! Thanks to my little cousin Hui En for helping to rub off the white waxy coat! Thank goodness her fingers are still intact : ) This pair of Nike SB Dunk Low was done for Hui En. I decided to give her sneaker a soft and sweet, earthy concept with just a little details that is not too complicated. I hope she likes it : )









Here's the two part tutorial on how to customize your kicks:

Sneaker Customizing Tutorial (Part 1)

Sneaker Customizing Tutorial (Part 2)

Hope you enjoyed this one. Toodles! : )

--Contributors--
Hui En

Sneaker Customizing Tutorial (Part 2)

Hi everyone, thanks so much for your votes and comments in the previous tutorial : ) Based on the unanimous votes for the first design, I will be sharing with you a detailed Part 2 tutorial on how you can customize your own sneakers using the painting method. Get ready for the good stuff!

We will be needing:
1. Acetone
2. Plenty of cotton wool/balls
3. Plenty of Q-tips
4. Gloves
5. Glass container
6. Angelus Leather Paint (available at Turtle Feathers)
7. Various thin brushes
8. Liquitex Matte Varnish
9. A pair of sneakers (I chose a white based sneaker because most of the parts are left white)
10. Good music





But before we get to the REALLY good stuff, here's something crucial to do before we lay out those paint brushes. Firstly, we have to take off the paint and wax on the sneakers. This paint-stripping step allows us to have a new 'canvas' layer on the sneakers to work on, and the leather paint will stay on better. Dip the cotton balls into some acetone in a glass container(wear a pair of gloves before doing so). Start rubbing the cotton ball onto the waxy surface of the sneaker. Rub on the areas where you will be painting over. And rub it in hard until you can see the paint and wax coming off. Use Q-tips on tough to reach areas. A new suede-like layer will be revealed underneath. For white sneakers, a grayish layer should appear.


This tedious process can be a real pain and could last for a few days, but it will be worth every effort :)

Here's a good video tutorial on how to prep your kicks:



After many gruelling hours of painful finger and nail rubbing, we can finally move on to the REALLY fun part! Here's where we can take out that gorgeous drawing/sketch from the previous tutorial and do our thing. Following the mock-up in Photoshop, I lightly sketched out some areas with a pencil as a guide before I started painting. Then I used various thin brushes and painted every detail in very carefully. Remember to paint in thin coats. And also, have fun blending the colours : )



Once the painting is done, let the sneakers sit for about 24 to 48 hours before varnishing. This curing process allows the paint to sink into the leather. Varnish in thin coats with Liquitex Matte Varnish (leave 2 to 3 hours between each coat). There you have it, your very own customized kicks!

Now lace 'em up and run around! Enjoy : )






Meanwhile, here are some awesome links for you to check out:

Mark Ong (Check out the masking tip)
http://www.sneakerfreaker.com/feature/sneaker-customizing/

SEKURE-D
http://www.sneakerfreaker.com/feature/SEKURE-D-CUSTOM-SNEAKERS-GUIDE/

PimpMyKicks
http://pimpmykicks.com/

Kicks On Fire
http://www.kicksonfire.com/

Happy Pimping! : )

--Contributors--
Andy

Sneaker Customizing Tutorial (Part 1)

I'm a sneaker freak. I've always wanted to customize my own pair of sneakers that would carry my own style because I was so tired of the old boring ones on the shelf. Here is a two part tutorial that I am going to share with you guys, in hope that it will inspire you to create something new out of the ordinary.

I'll start off by introducing this fabulous book, Art & Sole: Contemporary Sneaker Art & Design. The book focuses on contemporary, cutting edge sneaker collaborations between artists and designers based on their individual style and medium, and also features top street cred brands like Nike and Converse. Very awesome book.



Once you've browsed through the good stuff, let your imagination loose and start sketching out the design for your sneaker. Think of a good concept that best carries out your personal art style. We want the design to be unique and not cliched. For this tutorial, I am going to use an ontographic sketch that I did a few years back. I scanned the image in and then traced out with Adobe Illustrator's vector tool. Once the tracing was done, I opened the vector file in Photoshop and filled in some colours.



Before we get excited about painting some shoes now, grab a template of a sneaker from here:

Official Sneaker Templates

Choose the sneaker that you will eventually be painting on. Now this is the part where we superimpose our design or sketches onto the sneaker digitally. Open the file in Photoshop (newer versions). Notice the masked layers. You can add your own colours on the different layers that constitute with each part of the sneaker. This allows us to play with different colour palettes quickly, and it also gives us a visual reference of how the final product might look like. The basic techniques that you will need for this part is masking, clipping and layer blending. Tweak to your liking until it feels right.

Alternatively, if you are not Photoshop savvy, you can sketch out the sneaker template free hand and superimpose your design on it to see how it would fit. Add some colours to check if your colour palette is looking good. Play around with the colours and placement of your design.

Here's how mine turned out:



I'll leave these open for comments and voting. Do let me know which design you all prefer : )

Meanwhile here's another kick ass site for your reference:

Sneaker Freaker

Stay tuned for Part 2, the more exciting part of this tutorial. I will also be sharing with you Mark Ong's sneaker painting techniques. So see you guys again in a few days time.

Cheers : )