You’ll have to step your game up if you want these. Step up as in be good enough in some artistic or creative way that another company wants to work with you. PMK Customs worked with shoe brand Puma to offer Philadelphia based hip hop recording artist Meek Mill a set of two shoes inspired by his recent Dreams and Nightmares album. [more]
One of the most popular posts ever on PaintOrThread.com has been Tron Legacy & Daft Punk Helmet Lighting Designer’s SOLElites Custom Shoes. That designer’s name is A.J. Catalano and ever since we featured our interview with him about his SOLElites light up shoe customization service back in late 2010 they have been all over the Internet. Another place you may have seen the actual SOLElites was on the feet of the Black Eyed Peas’ Will.i.am in a slew of performances. Over time Catalano has had to raise the price of the SOLElites due to the effort and work that goes into each pair. If you’ve been wanting a pair now is the time.
For a short period the SOLElite customization is being offered at a discounted price. You can order a simple pair of Converse All Stars or send in your shoes to be customized. Order them here: http://ajcatalano.com/solelites.html and be sure to let A.J. know you found out about them on PaintOrThread.com.
This pair is actually a StarCraft II inspired Nike Dunk customization by Diversitile whose owner had the SOLElites added for the ultimate customization.
The perfect accessory to any Daft Punk helmet and costume.
Puma Clydes, the signature shoe of the New York Knicks most successful player Walt “Clyde” Frazier, are most fitting in bright royal blue and orange. Though that NYC nostalgia wasn’t part of the inspiration for Fresh & Fly Customz on this pair of suede Clydes, it sure could have been. Becoming known for his decon-recon custom sneakers Desp1 of Fresh & Fly went back to his roots of painting with this 1 of 1 personal pair. His initial inspiration was the veins within a plants leaf but ended up being more from a photo he saw of spider veins (don’t search google images for those). The end result is the orange on orange pattern you can see on the Puma formstrips and back heel tabs. Buttery blue suede is the best!
If only shoe customizers could put out work weekly, heck even monthly. It has been a while but Sharp020 has graced us with another super clean decon-recon custom this time via a pair of Puma Suede Lows. Sharp020 went “green” on this pair using a faux suede called Sensuede that is sustainable and made entirely from recycled polyester fibers. The suede was used for the majority of the upper in hyacinth while the Puma stripes and back panels a graphite tumbled leather was his choice to complement the shade of purple and the gold stitching. Oh yeah the stitching…how? Yep it is custom embroidered too and looks like it was done in a Puma factory. What started off as a regular pair of Pumas was deconstructed and using pretty much just the sole as the base is now a 1 of 1 design yet subtle…still one of a kind.
In case you happened to go online or watch TV without hearing about the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton you are in luck because you just came across easily the coolest result of this day of matrimony. No this is not about the Royal Wedding Pizza by Papa John’s. The British website WeAreHQ teamed up with Puma and six artists to create seven pairs of Puma Suede Mids into Royal Wedding inspired 1 of 1 custom sneakers. The artists included: Chase, Ghettrocentricity, Marco Monteiro Hasse, Murab, Dupelux and Tiffany Baron. The finished designs were made up of a bride and groom inspired pairs and 5 others with royalty inspired features like the British flag, gaiter worn by polo players, gold, photos of the bride and groom, crowns, and purple velvet. Oh and the photos below taken by WeAreHQ are by far some of the dopest sneaker photos ever taken.
The Royal Trainer x Ghettrocentricity
The Irish Guard “Groom” x Tiffany
The Dress “Bride” x Tiffany
The Royal Trainer x Murab
The Royal Instigators x Dulepux
The Royal Trainer x Marco Monteiro Hasse
The Royal Instigators x Chase
Qustom Queen is back with her latest installment of QTube talking about her latest creations: custom Volcano Nike Dunk lows. QQ says they were made as a “sacrifice” offering to the volcano in Iceland. Ironically the volcano slowed down spouting ash the next morning after these were made allowing some flights in Europe resume. She says she is “too modest to say that I saved the entire aviation industry but it is what it is haha…. anyone who takes that seriously take yourself elsewhere”. Also featured are her signature color changing customs in a Snow Leopard print using Nike Dunk lows, Supra Skytops, and a Puma low top. All of which and more will be on her soon to be complete website.
So rate subscribe and comment on the latest QTube HERE
After 18 entries and nearly 400 public votes the results of the 2nd Paint or Thread Custom Contest are in. 1st place winner is Jacob Patterson’s “New Grounds Nikes” with hand-painted New Grounds characters in a orange and red color scheme, only runner up and 2nd place is Yoa Kustoms “Get Randy” Puma high tops featuring a hand-painted female licking a sucker, closeup on her waist wearing only lingerie, typography, accented by a seductive black, blue, and pink colorway.
Congratulations to both winners. Also BIG THANKS to all participants, voters, our sponsor Tagur for providing judgement and prizes.
More information about the contest and entries
Jacob Patterson’s “New Grounds Nikes”
YoaKustoms “Get Randy” Puma high top
Sneaker customizer Sharp020 out of Florida is calling these a platform for a couple little experiments. Hmmm, what else could Sharp020 have up his sleeve? Of course check back here to see the latest or his site. But as the circle of “decon-recon” customizers is slowly growing by the days so are the crazy designs they coming up with. Though along those lines of moving forward a bit of simplicity is always nice to see. I guess you could call these simple at least by today’s standards, three years ago these would have been blowing peoples minds.
As for inspiration Sharp020 told us he really wanted a black and gold shoe and a denim shoe both added to his rotation. He used a Puma Suede low top as the base since the Puma Basket high top is pretty much out of production. To make the pattern he used a Puma Basket high top that he had to order from Singapore, so if you want a Puma Basket custom Sharp020 is your guy as he can now make a pair out of nearly endless fabrics using those patterns. The most interesting part of this pair is the fact that the vinyl is vintage from around the 1950s. I imagine its quality is extremely better than something you’d purchase made this year. Hmmm, again I’d can imagine some pretty killer customs made using some vintage fabrics.
Check out Sharp020′s website
I saw these on sneaker customizer Rob L’s website a while back this year but recently remembered them after reading about the movie they were created for. Rob L was asked to create these two Puma Clydes for a feature film titled “Hot Tub Time Machine“. Release in theaters is February 2010 featuring John Cusack, Lizzy Caplan, and Crispin Glover as main actors. The opening line of the plot reads: “After a night of drinking Red Bull and vodkas, a group of guys travel back in time to when they were younger cads.” I can only imagine the hilarity this movie could provide considering my own experiences with drinking Red Bull and vodkas. So will this be the first pair of custom sneakers in a feature film? Not sure if the Air Mags that Michael J. Fox aka Marty McFly wore count or not.
Sneaker customizer RobL has been busy, but not with custom shoes. So he was happy to get a chance to make these for a friends wedding gift: originally nubuck Puma Clydes that RobL then transformed through a dip-dyed process with Dylon fabric dye. Later the spot pattern was hand painted and insoles screen printed for the ultimate customization.
Not much info on these two pairs from YoaKustoms that were showcased at a launch party for Halfmeaningless.com.
This was not much of a matchup since B!ohazard forfeited giving Sah the simple win. Sah came with a pretty original design based on a nuclear bomb and humanity’s self destruction. So far out of 3 matchups these are probably one of the best customs so far. Click HERE for a 360 degree view.
Most all customizers should be jealous of, but at the same time happy for the success UK customizer Rob L has had. Rob L’s official releases last year under Puma were extremely nice. His pattern work has always been the way he stands out. That pattern work can be seen in these Puma Match’s called Puma Pike. The brown on brown design was made for a pike fisherman who wanted a shoe that looks like the skin of a pike. A great simple design. For more info visit Rob L’s website.
