ive been thinking about holding one.

anyone interested?

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Good Sole, Nice Redux

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Moonwalker bitches.

Moonwalker.

Moonmothefunkinwalker.

Its like someone beamed down into Nick@breathingclass.com brain my love.

im lovin pink right now, im forever in Michaels corner too.

The man made thriller. He”ll always be innocent.

and J20 from NT has these hot shirts available
please support your local artists/designers.!!.!…!

Also Fossco is like an engraving beast. nice detail.

For cryin out loud my style is wild so book me
Not long is how long that this rhyme took me
Ejectin, styles from my lethal weapon
My pen that rocks from here to Oregon
Here’s Mordigan, catch it like a psycho flashback
I love gats, if rap was a gun, you wouldn’t bust back
I come with shit that’s all types of shapes and sounds
And where I lounge is my stompin grounds
I give a order to my peeps across the water
To go and snatch up props all around the border
And get far like a shootin star
Cause who I are, is dim in the light of Pablo Escobar
Point blank as I kick the square biz
There it is you’re fuckin with pros and there it goes

love the escobar too.

Customs are so hot Right now.

too bad my html isnt.

Zing!!!!!!!!!!!

bare with me or help me.

any tech difficulties email me oo718oo@gmail.com

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The two pics that say mache are the customs.

The other is the opium 180 air max.

both shoes are solid.

but i believe somewhere in the concept of both shoes is a better design waiting to come out.

i cant place it but i think black 180 x desert camo could be hotter.

The Camo is well done. Just needs better placement.

Next we have devastator AF1’s.

i love EL, i love Transformers, i love these shoes.

Purple Pearl is nice touch. Logo is equally as good.

Great Execution.

aNYone out there that thinks they have the hottest customs and not getting any attention out here?

Drop Me an EMAIL with some pics, and ill see if i deem thee worthy of 2kwords.

oo718oo@gmail.com

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Recently some of the worlds finest commented on their “secret techniques”
here is the condensed version.

School Me on Customs

Methamphibian:
here’s a quick rundown of how i achieve my black paint. I start with:
Createx Airbrush Acrylic Black. Pros: good elasticity, good durability, and already has acrylic retarder for a smooth brushless finish. Cons: high gloss finish, moderate pigmentation.
Speedball Acrylic Textile Screenprinting Ink. Pros: extremely high pigmentation. already has textile medium for elasticity and superior durability. Cons: viscosity is like paste, extremely matte.

theres a lot of other stuff i add to it as well as some isopropyl alcohol and acetone, but for the sake of example, you see the 2 paints balance each other out. the createx is not super opaque. but the speedball is. the speedball is not fluid, but the createx is. the createx is ultra shiny, the speedball is ultra dull…etc. the result is an incredibly opaque, incredibly durable and smooth paint with a factory finish. both the speedball and createx have agents which retard the paint and cause it to dry very very slow, which is both good and bad. but the acetone and alcohol does help dry the paint faster. but in any case the slow drying removes the brush strokes

anyways, about the metallics. seriously… Straight out the tube LASCAUX STUDIO BRONZE metallic acrylic is the truth. you only need to reduce its viscosity by adding something along the lines of a Alcohol + Matte Varnish mix. do not add acetone to this. i never recommend store-bought paints for serious use, but Lascaux metallic is the finest money can buy (its expensive and well worth it).

about airbrushing shoes. ive done airbrush work back wehn i was really into doing comic book art (high school era) and never really much bothered it with shoes mainly because i dont like that particular “sprayed gradient” look on shoes. you look at my particular style and its more of a very high contrast, hard-edged, illustration-based stuff which really doesnt suit the aesthetic that airbrushing provides.

nothing against using airbrushes. just personal preference.

it took me many years to find a very solid and heavy pigmented RED PAINT. even angelus’ red isnt that great. if you need a super pure red with heavy pigment i recommend Golden Fluid Acrylic - Pyrolle Red. its like blood in a bottle.

actually a lot of Golden Fluid Acrylic paint is very good for the brighter colors. Hansa Yellow, Titan buff for awesome beige tone and mixing into black to get a true neutral grey color. they have a very good standard green color but i forgot its exact name. Ultramarine blue is good for both Royal and Navy, but you need to mix the right colors to get the right shade. also note Golden paints are very shiny so mix them with something dull to even it out if necessary.

for black pigment the best ive seen as a base is Speedball Textile screen ink. you have to mix this with either angelus black or createx airbrush black to get any kind of usable black paint.

the best white pigment i have seen is Speedball textile white, or for the price get Folk Art. even though this paint is generally not all that great and should NEVER BE USED by itself. i would suggest you mix Folk into your Angelus white or Createx white to get a paint that has a decent pigmentation. Golden Fluid acrylic white is troublesome i dont recommend using it.

again, best metallics by far IMO is Lascaux.

MIDSOLES by Ghettro

the first being painting midsoles and maybe myself and you two could pool recources here.
in my opinion there is no straight answer as to how to paint rubber midsoles.
ive tried the following.
1.penetrating rubber dyes( these colour the rubber but nowhere near leave a solid colour finish) you end up with that kind of recycled rubber look and its also not a pleasant substance to work with.
2. tyre paint for whitewalls. works to an extent but doesnt have the capability to be mixed properly to give a finish that isnt too powdery and cant be made into any other colours with any ease.
3.the acrylics used to spray car dashboards(cant remeber the brand but theres plenty) limited success with this one but ids not a definitive answer.
certain shoes (dunks) seem to take it and with a few additives like acohol seem to do a pretty good job of lasting but i certainly dont think they are the definative answer to the problem.
4. the formula that hustleman from uptowns came up with which was dickblix matte medium onto the rubber then angelus then a finisher does work from when i tried it and is an ingenious method of trying to make a colour stay on the sole of most rubber soled sneaks but imo the application of so many coats to achieve it not only starts to smooth over the rough pattern of the rubber and give it an undesirable glossy plastic look so i figure the only way to achieve good midsole colouration is gonna be a brand of paint/dye that can be applied and finished in 1/2 coats which im yet to find.

Methamphibian on Brushes
n my experience, the finest brushes available for this kind of thing (for its price) has to be Japanese made LOEW-CORNELL and ASHLEY

i use 000 spotter for lines and details
1/8 angular shader for other fine details
1/8 dagger for anal-retentive micro details
1/2 and 3/8 flats for most of the base coating
1/2 angular for getting those pesky corners in the panels

a lot of the really expensive brushes dont hold up to the acetone content in the paint (even the natural fiber brushes). they fray on the edges and its not worth the effort to maintain them.

SteppingRazor

To turn smooth leather into suede (for making more realistic elephant, safari prints and just suede in general)-
This doesnt work with all leathers, so make sure you test this in an inconspicuous place first. Nike and other shoe companies are increasingly using crap bonded leather (if you dont know what this is, go to a skate shop and check out the belts they carry…look at the inside and check it out, it will look like they took leather particles and made a cardboard like material out of this. there are varying degrees of quality to this process, and you can actually get really nice feeling “leathers” from it, but its main purpose is to save money so the most common form is a semi stiff plastic coated leatherboard. most recent gr dunks and especially the recent Journeys dunks have this leather. most white leather can be used (make sure its not synthetic first!).

you can either use a dremel with a small spherical routing bit (1/16 or 1/8 in), or a xacto knife with a curved blade. use the dremel to tear off the plastic leather coating (you have to hold it at a certain angle….test it on some beaters). the other way is to take the blade, and scratch sideways with the middle of the curve on the blade. scratch a small area at a time (about 2 sq in) in one direction, when it starts to come off, start scratching in a perpendicular direction and that should get it off. you can make the nap smooth (no lines from the scratching) by using a rough bristle brush. white leather is best cuz you can dye it any other color you want cuz the suede (or nubuck sinch its not really nappy) is super light.

dying suede/nubuck- easy but messy. if its a dark nubuck/suede you need to bleach it first (same application process as i’ll describe for the dye). more than likely after a couple applications you will get to a light tan or a light grey depending on the original color. now to dying. this crap can get MESSY so do this in the garage, or if you have a laundry room do it there…not in the bathroom cuz leather dyes will stain the grout and possibly your tiles.

my personal preference for dyes is Fiebling’s Institutional Leather Dye…its made for prisons, hospitals and schools and is non toxic and stains like a mutha. use a brush, or a qtip. AND MAKE SURE YOU WEAR RUBBER GLOVES! i had green hands for a week. i only use a SMALL brush for the corners, but if you can master it, its better to pull back the upper panel and place a saturated q tip close to the edge and let the dye soak in and bleed under the upper layer. that way you dont have to chance getting the dye on the other panel…cuz it ISNT COMING OFF. anyways, get the whole panel colored…then do it again. the more times you do it, the deeper the dye will penetrate the leather. let it dry over a day. its gonna dry with a film that will make the leather stiff. to re-nap take a long fingernail (for nubuck dont use anything but a fingernail or a guitar pick), or a dull rounded blade and scrape the leather back to softness. it will lighten up a bit so reapply if necessary.

EL: For lasering, I use alcohol afterwards to clean the surface most times, but very sparingly…you dont wanna get carried away and strip your work down to nothing. At the very least I’d use a wet paper towel to clean the edges. I hear stories about burn marks but I’ve never really encountered them.
as for paint….I didnt use to use paint, but now I do use it to fill in the burned area to add a lil depth and to make the engraving stand out a lil more…either by using a lighter or darker shade of the main color.

Stepping Razor- Cleaning Suede
new tutorial.

since restoring a leather shoe is pretty much the same as doing a custom i wont bother to go into that. but restoring shoes with dirty suede or nubuck has been a problem for alot of people so heres what you need to do.

obviously suede erasers are a good first choice to start cleaning. they are the least intensive of the methods. just follow the directions…rubbing the suede, etc. i suggest rubbing in circles. now if the grime on your shoe requires a bit more work, then try this….but first you have to get over your fear of water when it comes to suede. Leather is skin, and it will not be ruined by water. granted it will dry the nap up into a stiff skin but thats not where you stop. (this technique should only be used on suede, not nubuck and is only really necessary on light suedes)

start by taking out the insoles and laces. then go to a sink. youre going to drench the shoes in water, and start scrubbing them with an old toothbrush. after you have cleaned them thoroughly, you need to do it again. with soap (i know, dont get scared tho). take some mild, undyed hand soap, and repeat the process….scrubbing it in, cleaning the insole, and even washing out the tongue (if its mesh). use a fingernail to scratch at the leather to pull up any deep set grime and stains. wash the shoe like you would a piece of clothing. after youre satisfied with how clean its gotten, rinse it out completely, making sure there is NO soap left in at all. let them dry over the course of a day, preferably out of sunlight, cuz it will lighten the shoes and may cause them to shrink a bit. after they dry completely, the suede is going to be stiff. take a cerrated (sp?) knife from the kitchen (the smaller the teeth the better) and rub it sideways to open up the nap of the suede. do this all over the shoe till you get it back to its original condition. you may find that you can use the knife technique to clean shoes without doign the whole washing bit. it doesnt clean as deeply, but it definately does the trick… the point is to pull up the fibers of the suede with the knife, so you are exposing the lower suede that is untouch and clean. any more clarification just ask.

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