A few weeks ago I made a short trip to Brooklyn to paint a mural. My father and I stayed at my uncle’s when the night struck. One night my uncle showed us his room filled with his most valued clothes, and it was there he bestowed upon me a pair of Air Jordans. I’m not much of a fan of Jordans but I decided to take them on our train ride home.
Through Penn station and the five states we rode through I still didn’t know what to do with the sneakers. Weeks passed as they gathered dust in the corner of my room and finally an idea popped into my had. I thought to myself, what if I painted them? First, I wanted to see what type of sneaker the were. They turned out to be Air Jordan one mid. Since they were worth a lot more than expected I was really hesitant to paint them. Eventually, I decided they’d be better off on someone else’s feet. I gave them to my mom so that she could give them to someone who needed shoes.
A month had passed and I completely forgot about the shoes, until one day I opened my dad’s trunk. In a duffle bag, were the long forgotten Jordans, pleading to be painted. I took out the paint that I had and I went to town on the shoes.
Using a mixture of green and white acrylic paint, I made the perfect color. I slathered on three impenetrable coats with that combination. I could’ve left it that way, but I wanted it to have my own personal touch. Using a sharpie of an analogous color of the shoe, I drew some of my original characters on the heels. For the crème de la crème, I topped it all off by drizzling shimmering gold paint all over it.
The paint job was flawless, and with the added finish sprayed onto it, it beamed. I wanted the shoelaces knotted in a special way, used the internet to find the ideal spindly twists. I ended up tying them in a way where they loop in the middle and knot at the top, which made it easier for me to just slide them on.
