Pimp my daps

Despite blizzards blowing through Cabot Circus, a team of Bristol creatives braved the recent cold snap to bring joy to anyone who couldn’t live without their keds. At the Kustomised Kicks event, not only did you get the chance to have your trainers customised by local artists for free but you also got to choose your design, influenced by your own style, favourite artworks or Instagram accounts. From a simple drawing to all-over patterns, words or characters, you could choose absolutely anything to pimp up your trainers with.

Rory Walker from Superdoodle spent the day customising trainers in Cabot Circus

Kustomised Kicks pop-ups take place in shopping centres up and down the country, teaming up with a different local artist each time. Cabot Circus collaborated with Superdoodle, a Bristol-based creative production company who specialise in illustration, animation and graphic design. The artists get to share their talents with their local community, giving the designers a platform to promote themselves as well as a chance to meet local people and pimp up their trainers.

“It’s really important for us at Cabot Circus to work with local talent, to really showcase some of the amazing creatives and artists in Bristol. We want to give them a platform to show off what they can do and inspire our shoppers in the centre,” explained Amy Tout, marketing manager at Cabot Circus.

The Superdoodle artist for the day was Rory Walker, whose cartoon-style illustrations worked perfectly on the medium of trainers. “My style varies depending on the project,” Rory said. “I take great pleasure in working in several different areas, from comics through to storyboarding through to video game creation. I also enjoy watercolour painting, making big oil canvases, and spending hours and hours focusing on the tiny ticks and swishes you can achieve when doing pen-and-ink drawing. If I put all these styles together and consider the underpinning thing that unifies them all, I’d say it’s creating artwork that tells a story and draws the viewers eye in to discover all the little details.”

One of Rory’s finished designs, a custom 101 Dalmations doodle

Despite having so much flexibility in his day job, customising trainers was still a new experience from Rory, from working with the trainers’ irregular shape to adapting to all number of surprising and spontaneous requests from Bristolians. However, the artist took it all in his stride.“I properly enjoyed myself,” he said.

“As an artist you’re often locked away in your studio so the chance to interact with people is quite wonderful. You can only prepare for an event like this so much; one of the exciting things about it is you never know what people are going to ask for. I had a raft of suggestions come in from recognisable cartoon characters to a classic Hokusai wave woodblock print replica to repeating patterns. All presented different challenges,” Rory continued. “My favourite thing I did was a pair of outer-space themed Vans featuring a collection of stars, planets, comets, asteroids, and a waving alien in a spaceship.”

One of Rory’s favourite doodles from the day, inspired by Hokusai’s famous woodblock print

Sat at the Superdoodle shoe box table – itself creatively customised – Rory seemed very happy to recreate designs onto the trainers. Using graffiti pens he would draw freehand onto the shoes, checking with the owner of the trainers that the design was to their liking. Despite the freezing cold weather Rory was enthusiastically customising away, happy to recreate all the design requests he could.

The Superdoodle founders are a husband-and-wife team: animator and illustrator Katy Ross aka Gobblynne and illustrator and designer Bill Ross aka Billmund. “Being able to be part of a live event is exciting,” Bill said of being invited to be part of Kustomised Kicks. “Speaking to others and seeing the public react to what you’re creating can stretch your horizons of potential and give you new ideas. The more you realise what you are capable of, the more you are inspired to experiment, which in turn opens up new avenues and skills. The best artists are constantly developing.”

Superdoodle founders Bill and Katy Ross with their son

“It’s a kind of trial-by-fire”, added Rory. “You’ve got to get the request right the first time. You can’t make mistakes, so that makes it quite exciting. A lot of people enjoy watching artists at work but seldom get the opportunity to do so. I love chatting to people whilst I’m working; you can get a great rapport going and as a result it makes the job even more interesting. The customer has developed their idea on the fly, and everyone finishes up with something they’re pleased with. It can often take quite a while to get feedback from a publisher for something you’ve drawn, so to get the immediate approval (or disapproval) of someone present just adds to the adventure.”

I couldn’t help but want to get involved, and the final result for my very own pair of customised Vans featured a pattern of Comme des Garcons style hearts on one shoe and a kawaii character that I personally created for my own fashion brand Fruit Salad. It was so great to see my own design recreated by a local artist, and the Kustomised Kicks concept is great fun and a unique chance to walk away with a design that truly suits the wearers style and personality.

Fashion Editor Emma’s Kustomised Kicks

“I did a lot of research into pens and shoe-art before the event so I’d have a better idea of how to lay things out evenly and equally around the shoe,” Rory said. “Off the back of this event I’ve had several people contact me to find out about further customisations of their shoes, which is a great success all round in my opinion.”

As local designers, Superdoodle are very inspired by the Bristol creative scene as a whole. From art exhibitions, the ever-changing street art scene, art trails, the animation scene, music and festivals, they love it all. “In terms of fashion, Bristol is creative and Bristol people dress creatively. We’re loving all the independent creative fashion shops in Bristol like Colab and Made In Bristol that hosts jewellery, clothing and accessories by local Bristol artists and illustrators,” said Katy. “Bristol’s like a creative’s playground, with so much going on.”

For Rory too, Bristol is a natural home. “I love it,” he said.  “I love the diversity. I love the ‘What on earth is that! WOW!’ moments I have from time to time; it makes the everyday far more interesting to observe. It’s a very inspiring place.”

Superdoodle have just launched a kickstarter project called ‘Big Up My Boobs’, an animated song about breastfeeding. Find out more about Cabot Circus events 

Read our Fashion Editor Emma’s blog No Debutante