A SHOW CALLED KICKS.

NIKE SHOESHINE PROJECT 2012 - THE AIR REACTOR POWERED BY INSTALLITE

After posting Osamu Koyama’s majestic winged Nike boots yesterday, I thought it best to highlight some of the other innovative work to come out of Nike’s Shoeshine Project. This year the team of artists were more along the installation artist lines, while past Projects have had various sneaker artist types involved. EmmanueLabor describes the show as follows:

ShoeShine is a bi-annual event held in Denver. The winter show usually coincides with Winter X Games and is sponsored by Nike Snowboarding. The last one I participated in… they provided the boots and a brief of the theme, and give me a deadline and let me cook.

The video above shows two artists coming together, combining styles to create a futuristic sneaker design called the AIR REACTOR, powered by Installite. The end result is highly impressive and comparable to some of the other amazing work to come out of the show.

NIKE SHOESHINE PROJECT 2012 - AMERICAN EAGLE BY OSAMU KOYAMA

Having incorporated artists from all over the globe, including custom sneaker OG EmmanueLabor, Nike’s Shoeshine Project has become a staple in shoe customization each year. Somehow the work seems to get more impressive each year, and 2012 gave way to the best work yet. Filmmaker Ronin spent nine days with jeweler Osamu Koyama as he built this glorious gold-plated, winged Nike boot upon the white Nike Zoom Force 1 that serves as the canvas. This seven-minute video shows the artist’s process and certainly stands out as one of the most masterful custom sneaker creations of all time.