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UHF's FRKN Blog

UHF: QB1, STUDIO2, and BLUE STEEL (Assorted Nike Customs)

Hey guys,

It's been a while since I've posted here but I thought I'd share some of these recent pieces over the past three months with you all...

1. "QB1" - Nike Dunk Hi

The first pair I've dubbed "QB1". I painted it to celebrate the opening of my store here in Auckland, New Zealand - QUBIC STORE. The theme was pretty straight forward - I just wanted to use the shop logo's colours and the colours and materials we used in the interior build. You can check out pics of the store on the shop website - http://www.qubicstore.com . Here they are displayed at the store opening on 07/07/07.



2. "STUDIO2" - Nike AM90 Women's



These were painted for a lucky winner from a local TV kid's variety show here called Studio 2. I didn't have much to go with in terms of this commission, so I just took inspiration from the show's logo and colours. The base shoe was a White/Fuschia Women's AM90.



3. "BLUE STEEL" - Nike Air Bound.

I called these customs "Blue Steel" after a random MSN convo with Sekure. I dunno how people are going to take this, but recently instead of wanting to paint wacky images and art on a shoe I've decided to start focusing on solid colour combos, placement and simple patterning/highlighting to create a custom shoe that looks like... a shoe. Like a shoe you could wear comfortably instead of something with a zillion colours on it. Anyways, I just wanted a pair of blue shoes. Or maybe I was just jealous of my girl's blue packs. Yes, before you ask, the midsole is fine.




Anyways, hope you guys enjoy... much love from New Zealand.

peace
UHF

UHF: "SAS" - Custom AF1 for DJ SIRVERE

Hey guys, thought I'd share a quick custom I whipped up, this time for DJ Sirvere - DJ, Sneaker Fiend, and one of our solejam regulars ;)

He pretty much gave me a blank canvas to do whatever on, and after much thought and ho humming I came up with an "SAS"military theme - a wordplay on the DJ crew he set up in '02 with Shan and Ali.

Yes yes, I know, another AF1, but as we all know Sirvere is a big Jordan head so it was either a pair of AF1 or Jordans, and it's extremely difficult to paint Jordans, because their look is so timeless and classic... I'd feel like I was ruining somewhat of a masterpiece if I had to paint a J!

This was done relatively quickly as Sirvere also wanted to use it for his TV show here in NZ, and for a feature in his hip-hop magazine that he edits here.

Anyways, enough words. The original shoe was a black/black AF1, and the bag is something I found in a surplus store! ;) Hope you guys enjoy.













Features:
- Brass lace rivets
- Colours: Custom Military Green, Metallic Bronze, Pewter with shading tones.

I've got a couple of other projects on at the moment, but remember, if you want some customs done, get at me ;)

peace!

UHF

"THE ONE" - Custom AF1 by UHF for The Loft SS1

So, we were commissioned by The Loft & Askew to create a custom shoe - to be exact, a pair of Air Force 1's in either Mid or Lo for the upcoming Street Sessions event. The idea was to group together a bunch of local artists in conjunction with international Graffiti Wunderkinds WOW123 and SMASH137 from Germany and Switzerland to create a pair of custom shoes, and a matching canvas for an exhibition whilst Smash and Wow were in town on a tour of NZ. :thumbsup:

Here's how they started out, as a pair of White/White AF1 Low's:


As you can see, I dubbed the shoe as an "The One" - there's a funny story behind that, but it's probably too long for me to post it up here. In any case, I also called the shoe the "Air Force 1 Deluxe", as opposed to the normal 'Air Force 1 Premium', as a sign of the next step up from the normal AF1's.

The whole idea behind "The One" was to create a premium looking shoe that celebrated the old, yet embrace the current and the future. As we all know, it's the 25th anniversary of the AF1 this year (1982 - 2007), so as you can see, there's a lot of reference to the years on the packaging and the shoe itself. Also, the first colour that anybody seems to think of when you say "Air Force 1" is white, due to its duper-popular white/white model so when I was selecting colours for the shoe, I chose to leave some select panels in white to signify this.

It also seems that nowadays a lot of people are going towards the "hyper" colours and the ol' "five colours on each shoe" when designing customs; whilst that can be quite successful when applied accordingly, I thought it might be better for me to create a more solid, evergreen classic colourway of White, Black and Gold. I always appreciated a good, solid white/black colourway - its simplicity, its hard defined lines, and the fact that you can match a white/black shoe with almost anything in your closet.

So, I wanted the "look" of the shoe not to be in your face, and something that probably wouldn't seem out of place as a production item at a sneaker shop - but if you stopped for a second and look a bit closer, you would be able to see all the small details and work that went into the overall construction of the shoe.

Also, throughout the whole project, I made a concerted effort to keep the shoe "wearable", something to appeal to everybody instead of the hyper-colour frenzied crowd.

If you look even closer into the shoe you'll also see the various things that influence me as a person today. The textiles are actually off-cuts from clothing production - representing REPUBLIC, our clothing label, the tyre print represents modified cars and drifting, also something which I am involved in, and the 20K gold - well, that's just a bit of bling for you. :lol: As for the canvas, that features a landmark that is quite close to where I live - see if you can figure it out. ;)

Here's the finished shoe on display @ The Loft during the Street Session 1 event! :

PACKAGING:







THE ONE:

- Real 20K Gold Leafed Nike Swoosh
- Modified Toebox with black drill cotton for more streamlined side profile
- Micra-suede toe panel
- Re-coloured Mid-sole
- Re-coloured stitching
- Black and Gold lace eyelets
- UHF "Run Over" Tyre Print insoles















The accompanying canvas:



The shoes & canvas are currently on display @ The Loft for the next couple of weeks, and as per the exhibition, they are for sale in a set with the accompanying canvas. I can probably do another one for you in your size (these ones are US12) for a nominal fee, but you can PM me or email me about that. :)

Fortes Fortuna Iuvat. Never be afraid to lead.

Thanks, and hope you guys enjoy!

- UHF

ps - oh, and you'll never believe who dropped in the exhibition. Tres bizarre. :?