Discussion-Custom-Sneakers

Customs sneakers, some love them, others hate them. I’ve even been reading people saying customs are on the same level as fake sneakers.

Honestly, I don’t quite understand the concept of a custom being a ‘fake’ sneaker, unless a fake pair was used as the template. A lot of people complain about Nike Air missing from certain Retro models, so someone figured out a way to remove the Jumpman and replace it with the beloved Nike Air… this person has done so on a pair of authentic shoes. How does this make them fake? In my opinion, it makes them unique.

We can all appreciate the work that goes into designing and creating the shoes that we all love. From new models to Retros and even new colorways on Retro models, it’s a creative process from start to finish that ends up either making or breaking a potential purchase.

I can see how some might correlate a custom piece of work as a fake seeing as how fakes are categorized as replicas of the ‘real’ or original product. However, I don’t understand why there is so much hate for one type of custom, such as returning the Nike Air to your Retros, and another type of custom where someone paints a new ‘skin’, so to speak, onto the upper which ends up being perceived as genius.

What is your honest opinion on custom sneakers? Do you enjoy seeing the creativity behind the finished product; does your stomach turn every time you see a fresh pair of shoes ‘ruined’? Maybe you could care less either way since the shoes used in the project aren’t yours to begin with. Either way, let us know your thoughts on custom kicks in general; would you ever consider customizing yourself or pay a custom artist to take care of the task for you? Would you rather leave well enough alone and just purchase what Brands give you?

Image Via dedoy82

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28 Comments

  1. I like customs, when executed properly, and the whole nike air on the back deal in my honest opinion, it looks good when you remove the jumpman and custom make the nike air

  2. Well in my opinion the “Nike Air” custom was the illest invention ever. I think that this may either revolutionize the culture and cause JB to bring it back or we may see sneaker shops that generally does this custom. I don’t see the issue with it at all.

  3. I think custom is cool. It’s limited to a particular person and it’s neat BUT, custom done by yourself or some shoe artist that Nike didn’t request to make the shoe, technically makes the shoe and the design a fake. The shoe no longer is a Nike, it’s your shoe. It would be similar customizing or tuning a car. The car company no longer takes care of it, warranty voided.

    As long as people are quirky, unique, odd…there will always be a place for customization, and I’m pretty damn sure Nike loves it, all shoe designers and makers love it. Altering or customizing shows them something they missed out on. Keep on customizing.

    As far as converting a Civic to a BMW…::smh:: that’s just wrong LOL

  4. Not a big fan of customs. It’s like putting a nice car in 26 inch rims and candy paint. Tacky

  5. I like customs the problem with customs is that when people see them they are quickly to call them fakes and you dont want to argue all the ime that they are customs but the “Nike Air” customs are the best customs ive seen ever and I would pay the guy to customize my 3s and 4s

  6. Fake shoes have NO part of them that are authentic…none. customs done on authentic shoes are still authentic..only modified. If you bought a car and got it painted, its still the same car. If you added rims, switched the stereo, boosted the horsepower, and tinted the windows, its still an authentic car.
    Even when a shoe is reconstructed….its still using authentic parts of the shoe at its core….same as a car. You can buy an old car and get other parts from other cars of the same make and model and rebuild it. Hell, stores sell extra or aftermarket parts for cars…its the same idea here except reconstruction customizers have to make their own “parts”
    People buy suits and have them altered as well….I could go on an on…..

  7. It all depends on what dey mean by custom, Doernbacher’s are cool

    but the whole, take off da jumpman for a NIKE AIR symbol is just wrong, its real, but it’s fake at the same time. You have 2011 True Blues tryna pass em 4 OG’s? not cool at all, but i mean that’s just me. If i want the Nike air on my 3-6’s ill jus save up for OG’s…

    1. What are you spending $5-$700 on a shoe thats OG but you cannot wear??? Its not fake if he bought em from a retailer. The same as NIKE ID, just because you paid NIKE to make it doesnt mean anything, if you can pay somebody the same or a lil less from the same quality work as NIKE and its your fav shoe, not what they tell you to do, whats the difference??? The NIKE AIR looks better than the Jumpman but i like my retros and i can deal with the alteration from NIKE. Thats just me…

  8. This sh@! is cold….who gives a f@!& its an authentic shoe that was customized to look vastly better than jb could do…..it can never be fake because its an authentic shoe that went through nike production….jb should just put the damn nike back on retros cause they are still owned by nike and jordan would have never popped in the 90’s without nike….who really wears any air jordans other than retros??? team jordans all trash….nuff said….as great as mike was the shoe line would never have been anything without the nike logo

    1. You must be a young cat to make such a dumb comment…u have it backwards. Nike wouldn’t be where it is today if not for Michael Jordan…he catapulted them far above the other shoe companies at the time. Reebok and Converse would have given Nike a run for their money in the late 80’s/early 90’s if not for Air Jordan…so know your history before you speak. SMH

  9. Nike marketing, commercials, bugs bunny, spike lee, etc. those are the components that made air jordan popular along with his play

  10. I think its that the new sneakerheads of today learn that the colorways that they dont know are commonly refer’d to as fake. I know 99 % percent of sneakerheads do this including me. So i think that making customs is ”cool” to other sneakerheads as long as they say there customs. Like if you see somebody walking in the mall with that new ”Nike Air” technique above, on the back of a new retro you’re going to think that they are fake. I think when making a custom shoe that its kind of a waste to just change one little thing about the shoe, such as the back heeltab. So thats why the only custom sneakers i would ever make or buy would be something completly diffrent than a already used colorway sneaker. Also, i think that the point of a ”custom” shoe is that it is customized to something new. I see guys like Mizee Customs and other guys, not that i don’t like their work but i think that changing the colorway from one shoe to another is like putting a grey and black striped escalade on a camaro. You will see that camaro and think that he must of got that idea from somewhere else. So i think that making custom sneakers aren’t really customs but diffrent colors on diffrent models just so that they will look diffrent.

    But thats just my opinion.

  11. Honestly the NIKE AIR on the back was the greatest thing I seen in a while, if u think about it , this guy got major love for the sneaker game, to risk Ur 3s to make em look superb, I give this guy a round of applause, nd customs I think are great if u executed well, if u think bout it Bespokes Af1s are customs, the difference is u not paying $800 to customize Ur jays….nd I plan on putting a Nike air on my true blues

    1. Me too bro. I wanna get the nike air on the bacc too. But I only have 1 pair of TBs so that’s a major risk lol

  12. love customs if its done right and on this site i seen alot that was done great!
    that Nike Air idea is one i never would have thought of and it was awesome idea.
    i love for someone to do that for me, i dont care what others think. i likes da Nike Air on my joints!
    and people dont have that kind of money to go out get OG Jordan 4’s and 3’s from ’88 & ’89. thats crazy money right there to spend if u have it!

  13. People need to stop hatin. if you do not like something then simply dont concern yourself with it. its that simple. i think to many people today involve themselves so much in other peoples business that they forget about their own.. no one is the same. whats is cool to one person changes with the next. appreciate differences, its what makes us unique. and truly if we are all SNEAKER fans then we should accept customs for what they are..!!!!!!

  14. As @Joshfoo said earlier, when executed properly, custom sneakers are off the chain. As @Ronnie said as well, to each his own…since people are unique, sneaker customization is just another way of expressing an individual’s personal style. As long as the template shoe is authentic then the customized product cannot be categorized as a fake. People will be haters regardless…as long as the person wearing the shoe is happy, that’s all that really matters.

  15. Its cool as long as the quality is AAA … no sense in altering a pair of shoes if you just gonna tear em up.

  16. I think that this even being an issue at all is silly. People have been customizing kicks as far back as I can remember. As far back as 1986 When I was in fourth grade I remember seeing kids with neon colored Fat shoe laces in their Pumas and Pony’s. Different lacing techniques, people would take magic markers to the Puma signs, anything that they could do to be different and make their kicks stand out. That continues today, It’s just people trying to be different and make their kicks stand out. I think dude throwing Nike Air on the back of his retros was genius. He accomplished what mad other people have wanted to do for years, and what Nike and JB should have done to begin with. Either way when dude laces up his kicks he is gonna break necks, whether it be haters or jock riders…

  17. Fakea are fakes like for 65.99$ on the sites, i like the customs myself as long as their done right (colorway) but thats how i sum it up, if they costed you 65.99$ and youve never seenem and in two weeks their dunnishd then youll understand the difference between fakes and real **deelo**
    Big ups to the customs tho, katts got mad talent that needs to be seen and understood, the greatest ideas come from artistic ones who see things for what they are and for what they can become…..

  18. If you got the money and the time to do “customs” then do it. If you dont, then DONT. Shit who is to tell the next person what to do with a pair of their own shoes. If you dont like how some customs look…… Thats on you. You are not the one that has to wear them. I can see if they took em off your foot and went and did it, but they didnt so….. Mind yo damn business!!!!!

  19. Me myself being a person that contributed to one of the biggest customs this year, the South Beach 6, I feel like customs are just an olive branch of your creativity. i will say that shoe companies like Nike has expanded their sneaker game by dropping so many color ways, but why do we have to wear what they put out? Why can’t we where the shoe that we invision our self wearing? If you take a 72 Monte Carlo and customize the car by changing the wheels, paint and interior does that now make the car a fake? The same way people restore and fix up cars is what customizers like El Cappy and Mizzee do on a daily. The only difference is we get to wear these customs on our feet and get that same neck turning reaction you would get if you were in a clean old school. I feel like people who do not like customs are the same ones that are closed minded and wish to stand in line with the rest of the masses. i respect all those who think outside of the box and wish to do something that goes against what we are programed to think. Some of those same customizers people resent are the ones who get called by shoe companies for design positions. Let’s embrace a person for trying to be creative instead of bashing them because they painted over a sneaker. Look at it more as a painter painting over a canvas!

  20. I think the nike air on the back is blown way out of proportion. Ive been buying Js since day 1, and personally i like the jumpman symbol better than the nike one. Customs are cool, but i dont think i would pay a lot for them. It seems like they would crack or chip easier than normal.

  21. I like customs for the pictures, and I respect the designers who make them, but I wouldn’t want to own or wear a crazy pair. I’m actually really curious to see how mizzee customs does those air bags a different color. Pretty intense I’m sure. If anything Nike needs to get with the customizers who know their product inside and out, literally. If they ever mass produce a customizer’s shoe and don’t give em credit = super wack

  22. not fake. customs either. unique maybe, but i think in a bad way. Speaking about cars… its like putting the M/// logo to a 320d… not stylish.

  23. Bottom line: customizing destroys the sneaker. Art or not. If i want some south beach jordans i’ll wait till nike makes them. also customizing destroys resell value. not saying you should’nt customize. just dont sell em.