I wanted to write this blog post to spread some knowledge of how I paint these custom Janoskis. Right now Nike SB has all white Leather Janoskis that make a perfect base shoe to paint. The shoes started out looking like the picture below.
After putting on some latex gloves
, I grabbed the cotton balls and acetone and prepped the shoes. When I say "prep" what I'm talking about is stripping the thin wax layer that is on the leather. This is the most important part. If you skip this step, the paint won't last. The factory puts a thin wax layer on every pair of leather shoes it makes, something you have to remove before painting. The reason for this is the wax acts like a repellent to protect the leather. This can only be removed with Acetone or some other type of leather deglazer. The wax is a thin coat and sometimes it can be difficult to tell when you're done with shoe prep. 10 minutes of rubbing the shoes with Acetone soaked cotton balls should be good. You don't want to over do it as you can damage the leather. You'll notice this by seeing the leather fraying up. Once all the wax has been stripped, the paint can now lay directly on the leather. Below is a picture of the shoes after the mid sole has been taped off with making tape (and painters tape, see more about that here.) The picture below shows the first layer of paint on the shoes. For this color, I mixed white, blue and green to achieve the desired shade of Sea Foam Green. All Jacquard Products. I used an airbrush for this. It's a lot easier and faster to use "Lazy Susan" to rotate your shoe while you spray. And they're cheap. I got mine on Amazon: here
.
Don't have an Airbrush? This is the one I use:
Iwata-Medea Deluxe Airbrush Set
The picture below shows my tropical design laid onto the shoes. I cut out these leaves from masking tape using a self healing board and a Xacto knife. You'll also see a light gold layer that I decided to add on last minute. I can never get enough of Jacquard Metallic paints.
Next comes the black paint. See the picture below. This was 2 layers of black. One shoe shows the design once the tape has been removed.
I always love the look of a glowing Nike Swoosh. It's my thing. It creates good contrast and lets me paint the Swoosh black. Check the pic below to see that in-process.
After that is all done, I layered with a few coats of Krylon Matte Spray and I'm done!
Big Thank you to the team at Mates Brand! They sent me the mother load of laces to try out on my custom sneakers. You may have see the picture of the pile of laces on Instagram. This pair of laces went perfectly with the Sea Foam Green Paint! Check the pic below.
Want a pair? Get yours HERE.
Don't have an airbrush or compressor? Amazon sells the same one I use HERE.
