00:00The following is brought to you by L'Oreal, Maybelline, and Garnier.
00:12Attention all sneakerheads, this one is for you. If you're into a pair of fresh cakes and you don't
00:18want to just blend in, then customization may be an option. I'm here with Karen Nelson,
00:24also known as Rockboy of Awujo Studio, and he's going to walk us through the latest trends.
00:31Mr. Nelson, thank you so much for joining us. Tell us, how did you come into the business of
00:36sneaker customization? I always say that I took the two things that I love and I put them together.
00:41One was sneakers, one was art, but when I was younger, I always liked drawing. I actually
00:47never liked painting. Only when I saw someone painting their sneakers, then I got interested
00:54in painting. So, yeah, so I combined those two things.
00:57What type of sneaker or shoe does a person need to have in order for it to be fit for
01:03that
01:03type of process?
01:04The best type of material to work on is leather because the brand, the paint brand, they do
01:10focus on making the paint most applicable to leather. And you could also use it on canvas
01:18sneakers and also mesh material as well.
01:21Even mesh? Okay, but how does it, how well does it hold up, so to speak?
01:28Well, I tell people it's basically permanent because I do have a video where I was washing
01:33one of the sneakers. So, anytime people ask about the durability, I always show them that
01:37to show that it is very strong.
01:39Walk us through the actual process now of you customizing a sneaker.
01:44I do have a stencil machine. So, when people want like specific things done that need to
01:49be clean and neat, cut out my own stencils. Now, I could use AI to make like particular
01:56stencils that I may not find on the internet. So, I could put in certain prompts and, you
02:01know, get specific results.
02:04What are some of the most requested designs or themes?
02:08Right now, I would say for sure it would be anime. Anime would be number one. Besides that,
02:13sometimes people say like they like specific football teams, basketball teams, I could do
02:18designs around that. Or even people who are into cars, I did designs based on cars and sneakers
02:24as well before. And besides that, it has some people who want to just, you know, change up the
02:31look of the shoe, add some colors, make it different. So, there's always room for that as well.
02:37If someone has a pair of shoes that are starting to degrade a bit, is it a good option to
02:42have
02:43it customized, you know, painted over to kind of cover up the faults and still get some wear
02:47from the shoe?
02:48Yes, but it depends on the stage that the shoe reach. So, if the material itself is damaged
02:55or peeling and whatnot, I don't really recommend that you paint on that because you paint not
03:02really can't stop it from peeling. You know, but if, say, like the, it getting all discolored,
03:07you could restore it for sure.
03:09Now, in terms of trademarks and patterns, I don't know how it works in the sneaker world, but
03:16how do you navigate those types of concerns?
03:18What I would say to that is that each design that I do is specific
03:25and individual requests. So, it's not exactly like as though I'm mass producing these designs
03:32and I have them selling at a storefront or something like that. It's sneakers that are owned by people
03:37and once you own it, you're basically free to do whatever you want to do with it. Now, especially,
03:42a lot of Trinidadians in the US and Canada and different countries are reaching out to me. So,
03:49a lot of them want things that represent home. So, if you look closely at the Reebok logo here,
03:54the red area, you'll see that I place different icons within the logo representing different
04:00things that we did as Caribbean people to really make an impact in the world. So, you'd see the
04:07steel pan, you could see the running which represents Usain Bolt and his record. You could see
04:14waves. Well, we are well known for beaches and whatnot and music, of course. And what do you call this
04:22piece?
04:23Little Island's Big Impact. Couldn't have said it better myself. And if this isn't the definition of
04:28street style, then I don't know what is. As usual, I am Renessa Cutting and this was Street Style.
04:34L'Oreal, we'll see you all again next week, Thursday.
04:43The Proceeding was brought to you by L'Oreal, Maybelline, and Garnier.
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