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SUNDAY, JAN. 11, 2015 | NORTH HEMPSTEAD-OYSTER BAY

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BY MORGAN LYLESpecial to Newsday

Thomas Vellaknows that dress-ing well meansbeing fashionablefrom head to toe.

As a student atPlainview-Old

Bethpage John F. KennedyHigh School, Vella becamesomething of a sneakerheadwho was always on the look-out for unusual athletic shoesthat would match the rest ofhis clothes. Finding custom-ized sneakers to match hislimited wallet, however, wasthe real challenge.

So Vella took the do-it-your-self route, learning how to cus-tomize sneakers from watchingYouTube videos, including oneby Nick Mangia of Hauppauge.Vella contacted Mangia, whobegan customizing sneakersfour years ago, after seeing thevideo and the two have becomegood friends. They often attendsneaker shows together, andVella also asks Mangia for ad-vice on his designs.

In the basement of his par-ents’ house in Plainview, Vellahad the tools he needed —airbrush, special paint and apassion for “sneakerhead”culture — to turn his 20 pairsof sneakers into one-of-a-kindfashion statements that reflectboth his creativity and hissense of style. Now, he’sturned his talent for customiz-ing sneakers into a business.

“I want to be recognized as anartist and known for giving aquality custom shoe, somethingone-of-a-kind to enjoy and wear,rather than a generic shoe thatanyone can get,” said Vella, 19, agraphic design major at Briar-cliff College in Bethpage.

“He keeps getting better andmore comfortable with hiswork,” Mangia said. “He did a

Teen findshis passioncustomizingfootwear

In his basement studio, Vella uses an airbrush and special paint, mixed with his passion for “sneakerhead” culture, on his custom work.

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Thomas Vella of Plainviewhas created more than 30 pairsof customized sneakers for hiscustomers. But before he start-ed designing shoes for others,he made them for himself andhas a couple of favorites.

Early on, he customized apair of Lebron Soldiers, givingthe shoes an intergalactic lookwith lightning bolt designs.

Then there were his sneakersthat had a different kind ofout-of-this-world appeal. “Ihave one pair that is all pink,and then it looks like there’s ablood spot on the shoe and ithas fingerprints,” he said. “Theidea was that it looks like analien attacked the shoe.”

pair with a Statue of Libertytheme that’s my favorite.”

To make his fancy footwear,Vella has to strip the sneakers’factory paint with acetone, thenapply new paint with an air-brush. Vella typically spends 10to 30 hours on a pair, dependingon the complexity of the job.

Vella had been charging$100 a pair to customize store-bought sneakers, but he recent-ly raised his rates to $200. At$100, “I lose money on thetime I spend customizing ashoe,” he said.

Vella began customizingsneakers during his junior yearof high school. Since then, hisone-man enterprise, Big TCustoms, has attracted thou-sands of followers on social

See COVER STORY on G6

ON THE COVER Vella,withsneakers in hisPlainviewworkshop, nowcharges $200 to customizea pair, and has a bigfollowing on social media.

Thomas Vella hasmade customsneakers for hisparents, Camille andFrank. A graphicdesign major atBriarcliff College inBethpage, Vella, 19,learned to customizesneakers fromYouTube videos.] Video, morephotos atnewsday.com/lilife

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Vella typically spends 10 to 30 hours on a pair of sneakers,stripping the factory paint and applying a fresh design.

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media, and word of his foot-wear wizardry is spreading.Among those Vella has metthrough social media is BradTorf, a health care workerfrom Chicago who customizesshoes as a sideline.

“Because he’s a younger guy,I’ve helped with some tips andtricks. From what I’ve seenonline, he does really goodwork,” Torf said. “I felt goodhelping him out — he’s notjust some random kid out tomake a buck. He’s really seri-ous about what he does.”

Vella gets most of his busi-ness from his Instagram ac-count. His most challengingproject to date was his first job— creating a pair of shoes inhomage to the Call of Dutyvideo game. The sneakers,

which were covered withdepictions of laser beams, tookabout six months to complete.

Vella caters largely to a maledemographic — teens and20-somethings — that takessneakers very seriously. Oneof his customers, Jordan Gold-sher, 17, of Patchogue appreci-ates Vella’s attention to detail.

Another customizer hadworked on a pair of Goldsher’sAir Jordans, but he was disap-pointed with the results andapproached Vella to salvagethe shoes. Vella stripped andrepainted them in the rapperDrake’s signature black-and-gold color scheme, and evenstenciled on Drake’s trademarkowl symbol.

“What the kid does withshoes is just awesome,” Gold-sher said of Vella. “I’m veryhappy with what he did. It

just looks amazing.”Vella’s parents — Camille,

53, and Frank, 50 — also havebenefited from having anartisan in the house. He hascustomized wallets for hismom, a bookkeeper. For hisfather, a Metropolitan Trans-portation Authority employeeand loyal Yankees fan, Vellacommemorated Derek Jeter’sretirement with a pair of NikeAir Force 1s in Yankee blue,complete with the interlock-ing “NY” and the “RE2PECT”logo from the shortstop’s 2013season.

“He started crying,” Vellasaid. “He loved Derek Jeter, andhe was so astonished that I canmake a one-of-a-kind shoe.”

Finding customersThe advent of social media

in the mid-2000s has been

instrumental in putting custom-izers in touch with customers.Instagram, in particular, inwhich customizers can postphotos of their shoes, has beena huge platform for business.

“Once it got opened up toeveryone who had a smart-phone, it got big,” said DanGamache, a full-time customiz-er from Danbury, Connecticut,whose clients have includedpro athletes Mariano Rivera,LeBron James and DwyaneWade.

Vella also finds customersby attending sneaker shows,and was among the thousandswho thronged the Jacob K.Javits Convention Center lastmonth for Sneaker Con NewYork City. The event featureda meet-and-greet with NBAsuperstar Penny Hardawayand an authentication station

where sneakerheads couldlearn to distinguish knock-offsfrom the real things.

Last Sunday, Vella attendedthe Long Island Sneaker Showin Rockville Centre, where hewas hired by an attendee tocustomize a pair of Nike Em-inem Air Max 90 runningshoes.

Vella now has a backlog ofseven customization jobs. Heonly works on two pairs at atime and uses the money heearns to help pay for his autoinsurance, he said.

Celebrity specifiedSneaker culture took off in

the 1980s, with the soaringpopularity of rap music andthe high visibility of MichaelJordan and the Chicago Bulls.Customizing soon followed,said Torf.

COVER STORY from G4

Vella, whose one-man business is called Big T Customs, caters largely to a male demographic of teens and 20-somethings that takes sneakers very seriously.

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A teen’s foothold in art

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“There are so many peopledoing it of all different back-grounds — there’s kids, there’sadults, there’s artists, there’ssneakerheads,” said Torf,whose company AstrotorfRetros and Customs has hadsuch high-profile clients asShane Victorino of the BostonRed Sox. “In the last three orfour years, it’s just boomed.”

Customized sneakers nowadorn the feet of top athletesand celebrities, including rapmogul Jay Z, who wore a pairof Brooklyn Zoos by PMKCustoms to the Nets’ firsthome game at the BarclaysCenter in 2012. PMK (Perfect-ly Made Kicks) said its be-spoke version of the originalAir Jordan was made of ninekinds of animal skin, includingalligator, stingray and ele-phant. A pair sold on eBay formore than $20,000.

On at least one occasion,the sneaker industry has ob-jected to custom paint jobs. InNovember, TMZ published amemo from Nike warning profootball players that customiz-ing their cleats may void their

endorsement deals — especial-ly if the trademark swooshisn’t clearly visible on TV.

“It’s like a tattoo on a shoe,”said Mangia.

“Having a custom shoeallows you to really stand outfrom the crowd,” Torf said.“Or it’s a way to express your-self. . . . It’s wearable art. Some-times people are uber-specificabout what they want — ‘Iwant this color here,’ or they’llsay ‘I want this theme —“How the Grinch Stole Christ-mas” ’ or the New YorkKnicks or whatever. Some say,‘Do whatever you want.’ ”

Vella, meanwhile, continuesto develop his brand, buildinghis Instagram following, net-working with people in thesneaker customization worldand striving for perfectionwith each shoe he paints.

“One customization can getyour name out so far that itcan get to a celebrity —record producers, rappers,sports players, pretty mucheveryone,” he said. “Younever know who might bewatching on Instagram.”

Top: For hisfather, a bigYankees fan,Vella markedDerek Jeter’sretirement lastyear with apair of NikeAir Force 1s inYankees blue.Bottom: Vellashows abefore versionof a sneakeron the rightand histransformed,paintedversion on theleft.

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