With a ridiculously familiar brand name and a killer company work ethic to boot, Pimp My Kicks have taken the custom game to the overground with their on point designs and marketing campaigns. While Xzibit was flossing makeovers on whips for Pimp My Ride, founder (and Nike SB freak) Richard Brown brainstormed a similar concept that could work on the humble sneaker. Fast forward seven years - Brown, along with partner in crime Andre Scott have created a winning formula that has seen them churn out customs for A-listers such as Nicki Minaj, Will I Am and Diddy to name a few. Intrigued? We were, so we hit the fellas up with some hard hitting questions and find out just what it takes to be the king pimp of kicks!
Hey fellas, tell us how Pimp My Kicks started and why it was such a necessity in the sneaker game
Pimp My Kicks was started by accident. Richard, the founder was just an everyday collector of SB Dunks and had become a fan of the show Pimp My Ride and really enjoyed seeing how their team came together to make sick rides for people and the reactions the team received from the car owners. That provided the spark for Pimp My Kicks coming into existence. Pimp My Kicks was deemed a necessity in the game because I already enjoyed the thrill of hunting down SB kicks but I still wanted to be able to rock something on my feet that was even more exclusive.
What were your backgrounds in the sneaker game up until starting the company?
Rich has always been the SB collector and Jordan head and will let you know in a heartbeat that he only cares about Jordans that Mike actually played in so don't even go there with him. He is the geek of the group too, he has an IT background and you're always going to catch him with a gadget in his hands. He played a little ball at Malone College too and if you go looking, you'll find him on their Hall of Fame list. Andre is the lucky one. He was an equipment manager on the University of Cincinnati basketball team when Kenyon Martin played there and was given a lot of free Jordan sneakers as a perk of being a member of the team. Ask him sometime and he'll show you his Bearcat tattoo! Van Monroe was playing football at the University of Miami and developed a hustle of taking people's beat up kicks and hitting them with some fresh paint as a restoration. So when he wasn't playing with Ben Roethlisberger as his teammate, he was in the locker room after practice making some extra money as a college student athlete. Mike literally stumbled into the game. One day he just figured he'd try something new and paint on some sneakers and he got a great response. He then reached out to PMK and three days and 2069 miles later he was in the PMK lab putting out some SICK designs.
The entire marketing strategy of the company seems to be a big selling point - especially with the name being so closely linked with Xzibit's hit MTV show. What went into creating a brand that would automatically strike a cord with sneaker heads the world over?
We take a lot of pride in the amount of marketing we do to develop our brand. When we created our brand we definitely wanted to pay homage to what inspired our company (Pimp My Ride) thus we named our company Pimp My Kicks. I don't know anybody that has never seen an episode of Pimp My Ride so when people hear our name, they instantly can envision what we do.
Tell us about the artists you work with at PMK - how big is the team?
Our team is an amazing thing to see because it is always growing. We've got a nice sized team that is literally growing on a weekly basis so that answer is ever changing.
How do you choose who you work with - considering neither of you guys come from a sneaker customization background...
We definitely are not a "fill out your application" company. Our application process consists of "send us a sneaker" and we'll get back to you. From there, we all have to click. We definitely prefer working with people that are a good fit for our team, as we like to have fun with what we do. No, fun is a MUST around here.
How often would you have to recreate a specific custom or are all your kicks one of one creations?
That's hard to answer. A lot of times a client will want something that we have already done but with a slight modification. If not, we usually try to get our clients to accept modifications to a design if they want a design that we have already done because to be honest it's more fun for us to create new designs. On the flip side, some of our designs are just simply to the point where people want "that EXACT design". So it really varies wildly from design to design.
Do you think you'll ever branch out of the Nike AF1 into other silhouettes or brands? What is it about the Uptown - is it easier to sell in the USA where they still to this day remain a favorite?
We already do other brands. We have some Adidas Stan Smith's on our site and we also have some Chuck Taylor kicks and Nike Dunks. However, the people want AF1s and you will see how evident that is because 95% of our designs are on Nike AF1s. Uptowns have always been the shoe to customize simply because their panels offer so much more freedom for an artist and the shoes are also easily accessible. All that aside, AF1s are a favorite and we can attest to them being a worldwide favorite because half of our orders are from other countries
Is the US your biggest audience as far as purchasing customs?
The US is definitely our biggest customer base, which is followed by Australia and France.
Do you ever feel at odds with commercializing an art form that for so long has remained underground?
I'll be honest; we used to be at odds with that concern. However, we always meet people that see our work and get crazy excited and can't believe that this is being done to sneakers. And those people make us determined to make our art form come out of the cloud known as "underground". People need to know that not only does sneaker customizing exist but that a lot of work goes into a pair of sneakers to put a smile on your face as a client.
Would it be out of line to call you guys the McDonalds of sneaker customizing?
This requires a two-part answer. On one hand it is a tremendous compliment because if anybody in the world says hamburger, you instantly think of McDonald's. Their brand name is almost synonymous with their product and there is no bigger accomplishment that a company can get in my mind. So I think to a certain degree that people do look at us as the McDonalds of sneaker customizing but I'll let the people continue to decide that. Part two of this answer is that this reference definitely not reflective of what we do. McDonalds turns out burgers in a factory line type of operation and that is definitely not how we create our kicks. There is a lot of time that goes into our craft so we definitely do not want people to falsely assume that we are over here "cranking out" sneakers.
Where would you like to see the company in five years and just how long do you think PMK will be sustainable?
In five years I see us having established ourselves as the go to company for custom sneakers, having fully developed our tee shirt brand and also running our own shoe line. There are a few more things up our sleeve but we've got to save some surprises for you so you're going to have to stay tuned in to us!
Thanks guys!
