A group of leading sneakers artists, brought together by Troy “Kickasso” Cole, have teamed up to create a custom Air Jordan 1 High that will be auctioned off for charity.
The project, according to Kickasso, came together in less than a day. Cole said he was interested in finding a way to promote positivity amid the negativity of the coronavirus crisis and came up with the idea of a group effort yesterday. By this afternoon, he had 13 artists on board — with others asking if they can participate. (He referred to the collaboration as a “What the Artist” project, similar to how Nike creates “What the” sneakers out of several iterations that hit the market.)
“I was thinking about how can I use my influence and the industry that I’m in to raise some money for the healthcare workers that are that are working,” Cole said. “I put a DM chain on Instagram to the people that I know and respect that do this and no one said no. It’s was this instant, boom, boom, boom, I’m on board. Everybody thought it was a great idea.”
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Aside from Kickasso, the artists who are confirmed to participate include Brad “Astrotorf” Torf, Cody TheCreative, Dez Customs, Devlin Carter, Julian “Kicksquiat” Jones, Kreative Custom Kicks, Marvin “SoLegit Customs” Baroota, Sab_One, Soto Customs, Stomping Ground Customs, True Blue Customs, Dan “Mache” Gamache and Sierato.
The renowned sneaker customizers also agreed to the charity they wanted to donate to, the Shriners Hospitals for Children, which has 22 locations throughout the U.S.
“With Shriners, we really wanted to spotlight the the health-care workers that work with the kids at this time because not a whole lot of people are talking about the children and the people that are keeping them safe,” Cole said.
Each artist, according to Cole, will have two days to add their touches to the shoe and ship it off to the next customizer. The theme they are working with is “Unity.”
“Everybody’s artwork is going to be tied in and the inspiration is all going to be about unity together in time of need,” Cole said. “And who knows what it’s going to look like by the time it gets back to me. It’s going to be really interesting.”
Kickasso said the project should take at least a month to finish and hopes to have it available for auction on eBay by mid May.
Also, Cole confirmed a social media moment will come from the creation process. He requested all of the artists take pictures and videos of what they’re doing to document how it came together and will figure out a compelling way to share collectively.
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