Color Lovin’ Your Sneakers: Custom Kicks
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As any cool kid will tell you, the most important palette you can wear is on your sneakers. Luckily, most of the shoe industry is right on track with the newly developing long-tail, Limited Edition, Artist Series, Custom Designed and DIY markets, which includes any color lover who has the perfect palette to show off on the streets.
Custom Sneakers
Most of the major brands have jumped on the DIY sneaker design track, but not all the sites are the same. While I didn't go through every shoe site, here are a few that even if you are not about to buy a new pair of shoes, will at least keep you busy and distracted as you go through all the colorway options available.
Converse
- Shoes: 12 styles
- Materials: Canvas, Suede, Leather
- Colors: 30 colors and patterns
- Delivery Time: 2 to 4 weeks
NIkeID
- Shoes: 12+ styles
- Materials: textile and leather
- Colors: 12 colors
- Delivery Time: 4 weeks
Puma
- Shoes: 2 styles
- Materials: Leather and different types of mesh
- Colors: 45 colors, patterns and textures
- Delivery Time: 5 to 6 weeks
Vans
- Shoes: 2 styles
- Materials: canvas
- Colors: 39 colors and patterns
- Delivery Time: 5 to 7 weeks
Even More Custom
Latest winning entries from RYZ
If the main brands, and their ever increasing number of colors, patterns and materials isn't enough enough to quench your thirst for uniqueness, more and more people are starting-up their own customization companies and stores. Sites like RYZ (rise), a community based site, which allows users to submit and vote on shoe designs that they want to see produced, and Sneaker Art, created by ex Adidas and Puma designers, which allows you to purchase pre-cut stickers or printed pattern sheets. You can also upload your own designs and they will make them for you.
If pre-cut stickers aren't good enough, with a little research you can come up with a number of willing artists and designers waiting for your order. A good place to start might be Sneaker-Website, which has sections highlighting some custom sneaker artists, blogs and stores, but the best overall resource for sneaker culture is probably Sneaker Freaker.
New Releases
One of, if not the, best resource for the latest releases and general info about sneaker culture, is Snearker Freaker. They have a running collection of new releases and feature articles. They also publish a Sneaker magazine which they fill with the latest and greatest new releases, brand features and interviews with leading industry people.
Here are few of my favorite color palettes from their new release section:
LACOSTE - CABESTAN 75 YEAR; Sneaker Freaker
NIKE 6.0 - WMNS; Sneaker Freaker
GLORIAS X DC - GATSBY; Sneaker Freaker
PUMA X SNKR FRKR BLAZE OF GLORY; Sneaker Freaker
REEBOK X SNEAKERSNSTUFF; Sneaker Freaker
Vintage Resurgence
Nothing makes me feel cooler than knowing I'm running with 1970's technology on my feet.
Nike's remake of their 1970's Running shoes are exact replicas, complete with odd shaped swooshes, glue globs, and worn, yellowed soles.
Here is a feature article about the line which was originally published in Sneaker Freaker 9. Here is the official site.
If anybody has other sneaker resource tips, or some sneakers with great color palettes of their own, leave them in the comments.
Header image from Sneaker Freaker
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