UK based custom sneaker artist Nash Money has been redefining the art of customisation since he first unleashed his destroy-and-rebuild technique upon an unsuspecting sneaker world back in 2003...
Preferring an artisan approach rather than simple decoration, Nash takes his kicks apart before piecing them together again by hand with the addition of new fabrics, stitching and design elements to form an altogether new creation. He has blown up the blogs and influenced the industry with his juxtaposition of sneaker styles and formal footwear, using his signature moccasin stitching to smarten up classic silhouettes and even combining two different shoes into one with his recent Visvim / Air Max customs (now on show in London’s famous V&A Museum as part of their ‘Fashion V Sport’ exhibition). Over the years Nash has dropped some amazing pieces of work and has collaborated with brands such as Zoltar and Second Son to make several unusual customs.
In 2005 Nash took things a step further when he was commissioned by Nike to make two pairs of custom kicks for their ‘Festival of Air’ show at Nike Town in London. Instead of using pre-existing shoes as his base, Nash took the opportunity to make his work even more personalised by using one-off Air Max ‘87s designed with Nike iD to create the ‘Afrocentric’ pack, consisting of the ‘Bel Air Max’ and the ‘Native Tongues’ customs. Now he has taken this partnership further by teaming up with Nike iD to again take a hike at their London Studio. The recent addition of the Air Max BW to the Nike iD menu gave him the opportunity to work on one of his favourite sneakers from back in the day, so it was inevitable that he would tear it up (literally, before stitching it back together again) with this latest custom.
So here they are ladies and gentlemen, the Air Max Bush Walkers (BWs for short in case you hadn’t noticed). Influenced by outdoor footwear, these super-clean but intricate kicks feature Nash’s trademark moccasin stitching on the toebox and tongue, added hiking-style brass eyelets and lace hooks and deck shoe interlacing on the heel panel. An autumnal brown, tan and red colourway gets a surprising colour pop from the electric blue detailing, while Air Max labels have been added to the tongues (Nash’s original iD tongue lettering read “UR MUM”, which didn’t exactly fit the theme). These bad boys almost look too professionally made to be customs, as if they’d just rolled off the construction line – but that’s hardly a complaint. It’s going to be difficult to top this but we’re looking forward to seeing what Nash has up his sleeve for next time.
Check out the article in SNEAKER FREAKER ISSUE 14! Available online now!
