I started customizing 3/4 years ago. I started it to get more individual and exclusive Sneakers. First I heard about it in Complex Magazin and I bought some Methamphibian and SBTG Kicks.

I was thinking aout that and decide to make my own ones. So I started to do this. The label is Pats83 and I’m working with the Name Champate. Some words on my psydonym Champate:

The first part is Cham - it is from Chameleon, because this reptile arrange itself to his environment, like I do it with the shoes for their owners. The second part is pate - it is from pupate, the process of eruca becoming a butterfly. It is like the process the base model becomes an individual custom shoe.

I’m open for personal orders. Just send me a mail and we sort everthing out. If you have some ideas you want tell them to me, but you have to undestand that there will be personal influences, because I want to “tell a story” with my shoes and so it is very important to me that everybody sees that this shoe is made by me. As you see on my models much things a possible and there are many more things to make.

Just ask me! You will get a blueprint, so we can figure out, if you like it or we have to make some changes.
I’m also open for orders by stores and shops - small series of a pair or something like that. All shoes are original, but they are customized by myself!!!

And I have no special style to make my shoes. I just want to tell a story with my shoes like interprating poetry - it is ART!

When this all started only like 6 months ago, we were serving strictly NY and NJ, we were lucky and had a lot of celebrity clients early. That helped to back up our name, now I’m seeing the more competitive side of this whole custom game.

It’s added flame to our fire and now we are out to be the best, we are making our money so now we want that title. Usually you see companys that want one, well we’re here to show you just how sick customs can get. Everyone who visits our site can see our famous customers, new styles and they can purchase straight through there.

I hope our styles interest you, but you haven’t seen anything yet. All of our stuff is only 6 months old, everyday we’re in the lab cooking up something new and trust me your all gunna flip when you see whats coming…

SAMPLEKICKZ is all about sneakers, to be more precised, RARE SNEAKERS! So
if you want something that you dont see in the everyday sneaker store or
if you want to get something that wont be clashing with anyonelse down the
mall, then Samplekickz is the right place for you.

But of course, we do carry some general stuffs too. As our slogan states:
“You want it, We will find it”.

We are based in Hong Kong, which is one of the fastest growing market for
sneakers in the past few years, so you can be sure that we get the best
and most uptodate stocks.

And lastly, since march 2006, apart from the online store
www.samplekickz.com , we also opened an actual shop (MR..SK) in Hong Kong,
so if you are ever in town, do try to find time to pay us a visit, you
will see alot of rare stuffs in store as well. Our address is Shop 232
Floor 2/F, Winning Commerical Building 46-48 Hillwood Road, Kowloon, Hong
Kong.

Astoria VIII was formed by 2 Brothers in early 2005 and is dedicated to designing custom, unique sneaker art. All work is hand painted with precise attention to detail by DLV.

Our focus is to create the most aesthetically inimitable works, using only the finest quality materials to ensure our work is of the highest standard possible.

DLV was born in 1988 and has spent the majority of his life involved with and creating art.
In addition to hand painting every piece available on the site, DLV is also involved in the design process along with his elder brother J.H.A.
All forms of art are used as inspiration for the works created and together we aim to produce pieces which reflect individuality and a progression from those who have preceded us.

Astoria VIII has also chosen to forge relationships with select entities, most notably Melbourne basketball icon KICKZ101 through whom we produce exclusive works for sale and display in store.

In the short period Astoria VIII has been established, we have had our work featured by various publications and media outlets and are also currently on tour with the world renowned Sneaker Pimps.
Our sneakers have also been worn by professional athletes for whom we have designed one off pieces in conjunction with their input.

All pieces on the site are available for sale unless specified.
If you have any questions or wish to order a customised shoe, please lodge a request via our website and we will collaborate on creating your own unique piece.

Astoria VIII is primarily based in Sydney, Australia. In addition we also have a studio in Melbourne.

Artistic Sole is a customizing business in the DC area. A husband & wife team - A.S. has joined the forces of the local sneaker community in hopes of helping change the area’s sneaker game.

In doing so, Artistic Sole seeks to apply some of the hottest tattoo-inspired art in sneaker customization (being as though one of the owners is a tattoo artist). Though we seek to do custom tattoo-inspired sneakers, we can do almost anythin you want (that looks cool) … and even if your idea isn’t cool … we’ll make it cool! POINT BLANK!

Hi, I am the owner of the site. The site was started as a front door to my on-line store. I have been selling on ebay for a long time and finally decided to also have my own site.

Once the on-line store was established, then feedback from customers suggested that i add a site that offered the latest information on Jordan and Nike shoes. I also am an avid Jordan and Air Force One sneakerhead. Here you will find some of the latest information of Jordan, Air Force One, Dunk, and SB shoes. It offers killer wallpapers of upcoming releases and also has a nice section with sexy girls flaunting Jordans and other Nike shoes. Offers great information on release dates, etc…
Thx Waldo for your review

Future Kicks. com is a website that displays your hottest footwear brought to you by Stack N Bundles. Here you are able to visualize the future of fashion and design.

Permission is granted to stare. Sit back, relax and be prepared for what you are about to witness is real. Future Kicks are incredibly hand painted with acrylic paint and detailed down to the T. All finished products are protected from cracks and peels. Warning all items are powerful and will bring a lot of attention. Come up with your own ideas, I can paint anything. New kicks will be posted monthly and will remain on fire. The work on this site was envisioned and created by a young talented artist named…..”Grass” #1 custom designer located in Queens N.Y.
(thx for your review Grass)

Go onto Google and type Nike Air Force One, Basketball Shoes, Nike Shoes, Jordan Shoes, Shoe Magazine, or Air Max 95 and you’ll see that Instyleshoes.com is always ranked #1 or #2. Coincidence? I think not. Instyleshoes.com has been the force behind the shoe community since its inception and that title isn’t going anywhere for a long time to come thanks to Tammy, Jackie, and Larry who now run the business.

Very few people are still around in the shoe world remember this but Mullholand.com/nike/ was where Instyleshoes.com was born. If you go to archive.org you’ll see some interesting pics and prices from back in the day! Steve Mullholand started Instyleshoes in 1999 and his goal was to create a high-end sneaker site, one with excellent pictures and professional customers service. Back then there were just a few sites and none of them were professional so it was a big deal. I can remember an article written about Steve and he said he just sold a technology company and put the money into shoes. He bought two pairs of shoes to start off with and had 1,000s within a year. And to bring it way back, do you remember when Steve had a secret webpage called “area 53″? And it had Gray XIs for $99!

Instyleshoes.com took a hard stance on fake shoes early on as well. To this day Instyleshoes.com is known for selling only authentic shoes and taking on fake shoe companies constantly. I think this is one of the claims to fame for Instyleshoes.com and you can trust that you will get your shoes 100% of the time. Many of the other sites today don’t take customer service serious and you never know if you’ll get your refund or price adjustment. Of the 28 pairs of shoes I’ve bought from instyleshos.com they have all been perfect with the exception of one FedEx problem and they fixed that for me for free!

Starting in 2002 Steve and his girlfriend Nicole traveled around the world seeking the rarest shoes they could find. They have been to 4 contents and 30 countries and have found some of the most amazing examples of old school sneakers.

In 2002 Instyleshoes.com started a forum called ISS Forums which developed into a cult following. People from all over the world came to the forums to talk about shoes and buy / and sell them. To this day I’m impressed that Steve had the insight to create a market place on his forum as it is in direct competition with his site. Shows that he is in it for the community and not just for the money. Back there was only one popular site, NikeTalk, and nobody thought ISS had a chance. But Steve came out of the gate with free picture hosting, much better forum software, release dates calendar, and a feedback system. Not to mention the best moderating team this side of HK. And when people saw how successful the Instyleshoes.com forum became they all followed and tried to do their thing. None have lived up to ISS’s standard which has 41,000+ members as of 8/06.

In 2003 I remember seeing a post about a magazine and I thought here we go! If Instyleshoes.com is behind it then it will be hot. I bought the issue and for the first time ever I could actually read a shoe magazine! (all the others were in Japanese!). And of course Sole Collector has become extremely successful and is actually better than the Japanese magazines that spawned it.

A lot of great things about Instyleshoes.com but there is one area that they did have problems with. When Steve created the magazine I could see that he traveled less for shoes and grew his consignment area more. In fact, Instyleshoes.com was the first online store to take consignment sales seriously and it blew up. But a long post was created about some people getting paid late, really late, and I was one of them. Tons of people replied to the post weren’t involved in it and the forum that hosted it just wanted to see negative things happen to Steve. Well Steve came in and corrected all of the problems and to this day it is one of the most popular areas of the site. I’ve sold 50+ pairs in just the last month and have been paid on time each and every time. I guess all businesses go through growing pains but it is how you deal with the problem that marks your place in history.

So this single directory Mullholand.com/nike/ grew into a multi-national company that sells high-end shoes, is a high-trafficked site, and created a high-end magazine. Entrepreneurship at its finest.
(thx for the review Lisa)

For some Scandinavian vibes and news from the colder side of this planet check 7inch.dk. The blog is in Danish but the pictures speak for themselves.

Immortalsole is a “sneaker speciality store” for lovers of classic sneakers. Great to see some people holding it up for the real classics. Some retros will never have the flavor of classic models.