LEXINGTON, Ky. — Sneakers in the age of fashion have become the ‘sole’ of our expression.
If you’ve looked in trendy magazines, sneakers are often associated with various moods, defining moments or all-around personal style.
More than 35 years after NBA legend Michael Jordan debuted his “Air Jordan” sneakers, athletes are increasingly using footwear to express themselves, expand their brand and bank accounts.
For one Lexington artist and business owner, he’s keeping athletes and celebrities funky, fresh, dressed and ready to impress!
First Steps
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”-Lao Tzu
Every journey needs a first step and years later, Billy Hobbs is finding himself camped out in his basement. His basement has evolved into his home studio that he now uses for customizing shoes.
“I was always into art class and I never really did much painting. It was always like drawings and stencil and stuff like that,” he said.
Hobbs is an artist and founder of True Blue Customs.
He started out by using unique designs to customize sneakers for his sons and friends. Those efforts would eventually lead to a solid side hustle for Hobbs.
“[I] had a few customers like in New York and Chicago that I was doing Air Force Ones for and they were just like random themes and just like printable fabric, cut-out, glued on shoes you know – kind of generic and kind of horrific actually. If I look back at them now, they were pretty bad,” he said.
As his craft grew, Hobbs took his work to social media to attract other sneakerheads – showing off his shoe game on Instagram.
Then things took a hard turn in the right direction. A particular pair of sneakers was seen on the internet during the 2015 NCAA tournament that made Hobbs hit the ground running.
Willie Cauley-Stein, also an NBA player and former Wildcat, made rounds on the internet in 2015 for his performance in the NCAA tournament. While performing a spectacular dunk, Stein was spotted wearing sneakers Hobbs’ designed.
The two had discussed designing the pair of shoes similar to what Hall of Famer and NBA great Ray Allen wore to his ring ceremony when the Boston Celtics won the NBA championship.
Since the Wildcats were a hot commodity during that season, both felt it was only fitting to do a Kentucky version with blue and gold – the gold would symbolize the NCAA National Championship since the Cats were favored to go all the way.
“Gold patent leather – I mean they were gaudy, bright – the soles I dyed blue, I put “Trill” on the inside of one show and “WCS” on the other,” he said.
However, the Cats didn’t make it to the championship game but that moment thrusted Hobbs’ work into the limelight, leading to a business boom.
Becoming a sneaker design sensation was about to become hard for Hobbs to ignore.
“I think it was a Thursday night. I went to bed – had like 3 or 4,000 followers, something kind of small. Woke up the next morning and my email – inbox was flooded, and I had like 10,000 followers. It just jumped up because every sneaker blog picked them up and at that point, I was like ‘this is real’ – these people are crazy. You know people really love this stuff,” he said.
Trying to juggle a full-time job and doing something he loved was nearly a round-the-clock task. Hobbs said he would work 10-hour days at Pepsi, come home to design shoes until 1 a.m., making this part of his routine.
“It got to a point my wife and I were like you know what – I think I can do this full-time,” he said.
Spending 80 to 90 hours in his chair weekly customizing shoes, Hobbs took a leap of faith and left his job of 12 years at the Pepsi plant to dedicate more time to shoe fashion.
His colleagues thought he was insane for going to his side hustle full-time but now some are asking him to design custom sneakers for them or their kids.
“[I] jumped in headfirst in and it’s been no looking back since,” he said. “It pays my bills and that’s all I can ask for, you know. It’s fun – I get to meet a ton of cool people.”
Creativity comes to life
Coming up with a unique design can be a tedious task but Hobbs says that’s the fun part about it.
“My favorite is when you say, ‘Billy, I want this theme – do your thing.’ That’s the best because then I go in with an idea in my head and it just kind of evolves,” he said.
Many of his designs can take one to two hours but there are times when he spends as many as 25 hours on a sneaker. He says that can be if the customer wants a custom box, insoles or tags added.
There are also times in the process when Hobbs has an idea but it’s not exactly what he thought it would be.
“Sometimes I would get the whole shoe halfway done and be like, ‘naw this sucks’ and I’ll strip it down and redo it,” he said.
Hobbs draws a lot of his inspiration from everywhere, including television, billboards and commercials. He also takes lessons learned while previously working for a body shop where he customized motorcycles. For him, his biggest inspiration is always nearby.
“My family for one is probably my main inspiration because this is why I do it,” he said.
Most of the custom designs start at $180. The customers bring the shoes to him and most can go up to $400 to $500, depending on the request.
PHOTOS | Kentucky 'Sneaker Man' shows off famous, custom designed shoes
The celebrities come calling
Since opening his basement studio 9 years ago, Hobbs has customized thousands of shoes for big names on and off the court and field.
“Justin Timberlake’s got a pair of my shoes – Paul McCartney, I’ve done Chuck Taylor’s for him – Snoop Dogg, Thomas Rhett,” Hobbs recalls.
From Oklahoma City’s Hamidou Diallo to Major League Baseball pitcher, Jerome Williams. Williams was one of the first guys in pro baseball to reach out to him.
“Their agencies would send me 20 pairs of cleats and say, ‘Okay, this is for Mother’s Day, Father’s Day – July 4th’,” he said.
At the time, Hobbs was working on a pair of Chicago-themed Jordans for Cincinnati Reds catcher, Tucker Barnhart.
Since the untimely passing of Bryant, Cauley-Stein teamed up with Hobbs again for a shoe dedicated to the NBA legend and his late daughter who were tragically killed in a helicopter crash in late January.
Cauley-Stein wanted to embody the love, respect and admiration in those sneakers for their favorite player.
The shoes were a customized pair of Nike Kobe AD Exodus that feature photos of Bryant and his daughter Giana. They read “Mamba Forever” and “Rest in Peace Mambacita,” the nickname Bryant affectionately called his daughter.
Hobbs made the six-hour roundtrip up to Indianapolis in early February to personally deliver the shoes to Cauley-Stein where the power-forward was playing with his team the Dallas Mavericks against the Indiana Pacers.
Hobbs said the shoes would go down as one of the favorite pairs he’s done.
Jumping into his passion headfirst and landing on two feet was a risk that made for a perfect fit.
Hobbs says he doesn’t do a lot of customization locally. Many of his orders are from out of state and internationally, where he’s seeing the most growth. He’s optimistic in what the future holds.
“As far as where it’s going to go – like I’m content with being here in my studio and I don’t know where it’s going to take me from now. I don’t think customization is going anywhere. I think it’s going to get bigger and bigger.”
For more information on True Blue Customs, visit the Instagram page.
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