I remember when I was young I was really into skateboarding. Myself and my friends Kirsteen and James all used to come through to Glasgow once a month to the skate/American football shop that was on the top floor of the Virgin Megastore, that used to be on Union Street, called Quarter Back.
My board was kitted out with Gullwing trucks and Acid Drop wheels and my board was unbranded as I wanted to paint it myself (I painted the Misfits skull on it). I also had a HUGE crush on one of the guys who worked there called Andy. He had the most beautiful head of waist length hair and I just loved him.
At that time we tried to get a skate fanzine on the go called Catalogue of Disasters and I designed a wee logo which was a fish skeleton (C.O.D - geddit?) and got stickers printed and everything.
We bought Thrasher magazine religiously and Kirsteen had these great Thrasher trousers. She also had a pair of shorts which she bought from a fanzine we used to read called More Tea Vicar which had little vicars drinking tea printed on them! I never had anything like that since money was tight in my house but what I did do was customise my Converse. This involved getting busy with any paint I could get my hands on, markers and pens and scribbling, doodling and paint dabbing every inch of the boot. I did that with every pair of Converse I ever bought. They got trashed really easily as the grip tape on your board would wear away the sides of your boots when you ollied (not that I could do that very well. I was a shit skater)
Obviously I'm a tad too old now to try my hand at skateboarding again, but I still love the idea of customising footwear.
Cocopunkz, who also has an Etsy shop, does just that.
Ordinary shoes are given a fun makeover and made much more interesting. When it comes to patterned shoes I am exceptionally picky, but I think scribbled and painted on ones would be amazing.
I'm not going to attempt to do this myself since I killed a perfectly good pair of shoes a few months back by spray painting the wooden platform, which came out ridiculous because I primed them first. So I shan't let myself loose on any more shoes with paint!
Queen Michelle
