“Now its less about the reactions and more about challenging myself to do something I haven’t seen any other customizer do. It’s almost like competition.”
This month’s featured artist more than likely has caught your attention at one point in time. An EmmanueLabor piece may not be the loudest or wildest pair, but it’s the simplicity in design that captures a larger audience despite their varying tastes.
Finding his work is not hard. He is known and respected on just about every online sneaker forum that contains a custom sneaker section. Categorizing his work is a different story. He does it all, and is in no way chained down to one style or medium of customizing. Whether it’s through brushing, stitching or engraving, the man does it all, and he does it well.
More impressively, EmmanueLabor has done it well since 2001, even earlier if you count those years of manning the sharpie. When simple color ways were growing dull and repetitive, he changed it up with the Neapolitan Air Force Ones. When imagery on shoes existed only through painted logos, he released the Kanye West Dunks with the printed canvas (a now common technique that many credit him with). When there seemed to be a stalemate in the use of fabrics and denim, he broke out the Wimbledon Dunks. What will he do next? How will he do it? That is all a mystery.
The only guarantee is that, whatever he will be doing, he will continue to impress the crowds for many years into the future. That’s ol’ Mr. Consistency for you.
First things first, when and how did you get started?
I basically got into customs while thumbing through an inaugural issue of KING magazine. Inside there were a pair of AF1’s with a Louis Vuitton swoosh. I thought that was the hottest thing ever and wanted some, but figured I couldn’t afford them(when I thought they were a real collab). I really had to have ‘em so I looked into getting some LV fabric or leather to make my own. I never found any LV material but did find some Gucci fabric and used it instead. Some fabric glue and a trip to the cobbler and I was set.
The reaction I got from them was crazy. I did another pair with terry cloth swooshes to match some terry cloth shorts I had and got similar reactions. I really liked having different shoes that NOBODY else had. Not too long after that I ran across Methamphibians Rayguns inspired forces. Those blew me away. I’d colored my shoes in the past with Sharpies and fat tip graff markers, but that was basically just to give an old beat up pair of shoes new life. To see that a person could PAINT a shoe anyway they wanted….it opened my mind.
Ever since I was 13 I’d wanted to design shoes, so when I saw what could be done with paint to in effect, make my own shoes, I went crazy. I scoured the net for his methods, the paints he used….the process. I think I still have an old guide of his somewhere at home. I went and bought various colors of Liquitex, acetone, brushes, cotton balls, styrofoam cups, masking tape…everything. The 1st shoe I actually painted was a pair of Jordan XVI lows. They didnt come out that great, and I think they cracked like 2 hours into me wearing them, but I was hooked. I painted a pair of Adidas shell toes to match an Akademiks sweatsuit I had. The paint job on those was pretty crappy too, but I was proud of them. I wore ‘em a few times and people just flipped! Like complete strangers would come up to me and ask me about them even though there was paint on the liner and midsole and the paint had cracks in the creases.
Those reactions, and the freedom to do whatever I wanted to a pair of shoes was intoxicating. I kept taking shoes I rarely wore and painting them. After that, I was painting a pair of shoes every other week and haven’t really slowed down since. Now its less about the reactions and more about challenging myself to do something I haven’t seen any other customizer do. It’s almost like competition.
What’s impressive is that you’ve been doing this steadily for some time now. I guess the name, EmmanueLabor, fits you well. Describe more of your thoughts on customs now opposed to when you first started out. You mentioned competition. Is it a competition with yourself or with others that just keeps you going?
I think customs these days are great. I think everybody is pushing everybody else to really do special things. There was a stretch when people saw what some respected customizers were selling their customs for and were just doing it to make what they thought would be a quick buck, but that seems to have died down, and now people are really into it for the art and creativity of it. I love how there are different customizers that really excel in certain areas. Some are really good with the airbrush, some are excellent with woodburners. Some people focus mainly on fabric work or reconstruction, others can hand paint insanely intricate designs. A lot of customizers are taking it seriously….its more than just painting a 2-tone colorway or a team logo or Spongebob graphic.
As far as competition goes, I’m always competing with myself. I always wanna outdo the last shoe I did. I try to come up with different angles and processes or use different mediums you don’t often see other customizers use. I use other customizers work as a sort of motivation too. I don’t compete in terms of really being concerned about “who’s the best” or “who won _______ contest”. It’s more so seeing top level work. I’ll see something another guy did and be like “those are crazy! I need to step it up”. Then again, there are times when I see what I think is a mediocre custom, yet the artist gets a lot of love for it. That can motivate me too. I’m always humble, but inside, there’s a lot of ego going on.
I think any person that does anything at a high level has to have some sort of ego. I like to try to wow people and go the extra step. For instance when I was working on the concept for my Magneto AF1’s I was mainly thinking about the red and purple colorway. I hadn’t seen many customs in those colors so I thought it would be cool. I’d planned on using metallic paint just to play up to the magnetic theme even more. I kept thinking, and the magnetic swoosh idea came to me. It was something I felt would really take that Magneto concept over the top from just a red and metallic purple shoe to an actual “Magneto shoe”.
Speaking of stepping it up and trying to think outside of the box, can you talk about the printed canvas technique? You’ve dabbled in so many different methods, but that just seems to be the one medium that has had a lasting effect in customizing. Where did that whole idea come from?
I got the initial inspiration for it from 2 places….the Paris dunks, and a pair of insoles I saw on some EA Sports Air Force 2’s. In the beginning I thought it would be hot if a customizer could make insoles that weren’t just a solid color….give them an even more personal feel. A small touch, but a nice one. I had some T-shirt transfers lying around for months that I’d never got around to using. I decided to give them a try directly on the insoles.
That was a nightmare! The heat from the iron shrunk the foam insole and the transfer really didn’t take well. I thought on it and decided to apply the transfer directly to a t-shirt, then cut the fabric to the shape of an insole. That worked out great.
I was gonna be content with making custom insoles for all my shoes, but then I caught the hype of the Paris dunks. I wanted to do something similar, but I wanted to use real images as opposed to painted ones. At that time Kanye West’s buzz was getting huge, so I figured I’d use him as a theme for the shoe. I liked how the Paris dunk was done with canvas.
There was texture that made the shoe more special in my eyes. I didn’t have canvas at the time, but I wanted the images to have texture instead of being smooth. I ended up applying the transfer to an old thermal shirt I’d cut up. I was really pleased with the results. When I 1st showed people there was a mixed reaction….a lot of people hated them…called me a Kanye stan lol Some people thought I’d actually cut pictures out of magazines and glued them onto a shoe…a lot of other people saw my vision and what I was trying to do.
I think that shoe really kinda gave me a name in the customizing world. I started getting a bunch of orders for shoes using that same technique, but with varying subjects.
Some people wanted their own pics or pics of loved ones, others wanted Biggie, Tupac, Nas, Scarface, Elisha Dushku, Spiderman, various athletes, Kirsten Dunst…..even Paris Hilton. I did tons of shoes with that technique, but after a while I hated it. It seemed like that was all I was known for…..”the picture shoe guy”. I’d gotten stagnant and wasn’t doing anything innovative with it so I stopped for a while. I didn’t like being seen as 1 dimensional and being “typecast” for only those kinds of shoes. That and the fact that other people started doing it made it seem a lot less special to me. I still use it nowadays, but the trick is using in the right situation. Before I was just making random collages with assorted pics….no real creativity in that. Now it’s all about placement, and incorporating the images into the overall design of the shoe. I’m glad I was able to make a contribution to the customizing culture.
Well, you’re definitely not known for being one-dimensional now. You’ve done it all. Can you pick a favorite pair and why?
Wow…pick a favorite pair? That’s like asking a parent to pick a favorite child lol. Umm, I’d probably have to say…..the Sole Collector Flip-Book Vandals. I think that was probably the most creative shoe I’ve done thus far so I think those would be my favorite. If you asked me again tomorrow, I might say some different shoe lol.
Are there any new favorite “children” along the way; any major projects, or news you’d like to share with public? What does 07 have in store for you?
Hmmm…..I’m really in love with the 3M Agassi AF1’s I just did. I like the flashiness….the turbo pink and 3M with the black contrast really work for me. I’ve been a sucker for 3M since the V’s dropped back in the day. I wish I could find that base shoe in my size. I don’t really have any major projects in the works yet. A few collabo’s on the horizon with fellow customizers and some clothing labels as well as the Linked Project (http://www.projectlinked.com) so far.
I’ll be focusing a lil more on the clothing line me and my friends have been working on, and I’m strongly considering doing some clothing in relation to some of the shoes I do. I want everything I do to be bigger and better than it was in 2006.
What advice can you give to those who wish to enter the customizing game?
Advice…hmmm….I’d say, do this for the love. Whether it be the love of art, or creativity or shoes….just make sure you love doing it. This generally isn’t something you’re going to get rich off of. Don’t do it for some sort of perceived “fame” or props either. If you get into it for those reasons, you’re gonna be disappointed pretty quickly. Don’t be afraid to try things on your own. You learn ALOT more from trial and error than you do from asking somebody else. You get more of a sense of accomplishment when you figure out something on your own, and it sometimes leads you to new discoveries. Anything is possible. You get out of it what you put into it.
Any last shouts?
Pretty much any and everybody I’ve come into contact with through doing these shoes. 1st off I have to say Methamphibian. I don’t know the guy, but his work really inspired me to give it a serious try. All the people that have loved and hated my work equally….both have fueled me to continue doing this. All my fellow customizers…Johnnie from Creative Sole, bLue, Evolved Footwear, Above The Clouds, Fossco, Mache, Ghettro, Mizze, Killa Kate, ST04, C2, KB, Sekure, Siksneaks, Imag4ever, BBGambini, The Dassler Rebellion, TN, Triumvir3…the list goes on. All the sites I post my work on for feedback, NT, ISS, Hypebeast, Uptowns.net, Nice Kicks, the fellas at Undr-Crwn, Andrew from 3sixteen, Sole Collector…my friends and fam. Everybody. Thank You.
