features
TELEVISION ON THE WILD SIDE
HOW A PETERS TOWNSHIP RESIDENT TURNED HIS PASSION FOR HUNTING AND COOKING INTO A NATIONAL TV SHOW
By TIM MCNELLIE

THE ARTIST'S SOLE
TURNING INSPIRATION INTO FLASHY FOOTWEAR IS PAYING OFF FOR ONE LOCAL ARTIST
By CASSANDRA WENTWORTH

RADICCHIO'S
THE BEST LITTLE GOURMET STORE ON ROUTE 19

THE CARD THAT SAYS IT ALL
TWO THINGS ARE UPPERMOST IN THE MINDS OF TIME-STRAPPED SHOPPERS. CONVENIENCE AND COST. INCREASINGLY, THE ANSWER MAY LIE IN GIFT CARDS.
By MARILYN A. POSNER

Ryan Graham owns more shoes than his girlfriend. And the 50 or so pairs of utterly unique high-top Nikes, low-rise Adidas and old-school Air Force Ones in his closest are nothing that can be found in a mall. Graham, 29, runs PGH Sole, a service in which he takes an ordinary pair of sneakers and paints and personalizes them to his client’s liking, often incorporating movie characters, musicians, and other bits of popular culture.

Custom-painted sneakers with bold, attention-grabbing designs are a hot trend among young people right now, a shoe subculture that’s creeping toward the mainstream. Personalized shoes are showing up on celebrities like Justin Timberlake and rapper Nas, while artists’ contests on websites like SoleCollector.com draw scores of entries from artists around the country. One episode of the popular HBO series “Entourage” featured a character shelling out $20,000 for a pair of shoes customized by a fictional artist named Fukijama. The actual shoes used in that episode were later auctioned off on eBay for 15,000 real dollars. Major shoe manufacturers like Nike, Adidas, and Reebok have gotten in on the act, introducing their own online customization services. Graham got his start in the shoe game about a year ago during a shopping trip in Los Angeles with his sister, Danielle. A stop at the Fred Segal store revealed a line of flashy custom-painted sneakers. They caught Graham’s eye, but what really got his attention was the price tag: the suped-up sneaks ranged from $800 to $1,800.

Graham, a student in the Pittsburgh Art Institute’s interior design program, knew his own work could hold up to what he saw selling in such high-end boutiques. He had already dabbled with custom shoes previously, and his lifelong love of footwear made such art a natural fit.

He sold his first pair at a personal show in East Liberty’s Shadow Lounge for $400, though his price isn’t always quite so steep. Basic deigns can run around $75 plus the cost of the shoe, but he has made sets worth $500.

“I do it for the fun of it,” he says. “It’s amazing to see people get so excited about it. I’m never going to do the same shoe twice. No one on the planet will have the same shoe as you.”

While Graham’s inspirations can include anything from friends’ ideas to pop culture, his best ideas come from his own brainstorming. A pair of shoes with a trim of gray fish scales and a fleshy pink-orange coating Graham created as tribute to Wholley’s (“They’re my ode to fish,” he quips). Another, made for girlfriend Megan, depict the famous scenes from E.T., with the alien in the bicycle basket on one side and the “E.T. phone home” moment on the other.

“I like stuff that makes me laugh,” he says. “I mean, fish scales? E.T.? There have been so many crazy ideas.” One of his favorite sets of shoes is a pair showing a post-swing Roberto Clemente on one side and a close-up of the baseball great on the other. There’s also a shoe tribute to the 10th Street Bridge, a pair he calls Bridge City Infiltrators, with the bridge depicted on the tongue and 412 printed on the back.

Sitting in South Side’s Beehive and sporting a Pirates baseball cap, Graham exudes hometown pride. A graduate of Mt. Lebanon High School, he and his girlfriend Megan live in a six-bedroom house in Highland Park, where he also has a studio and a collection of vintage bicycles. He’s lived in other states on both coasts, but he still considers Pittsburgh his ideal home. “It has a neighborhood vibe you can’t find in many places,” he says. “And with the scene in South Side, the East End and Downtown, I feel like I know everybody. Pittsburgh is getting cooler by the minute.”

Some of Graham’s clients are local deejays, who wear his work and display his designs at shows, but the bulk of his sales are made from his MySpace page, www.myspace/pghsole. He’s looking into selling his work at local high-end stores like Ulterior Motive.

With mainstream designers like Mark Ecko bringing personalized shoes to the national fashion scene, Graham expects the trend to gain popularity in coming years.

Adam Rorick, CEO of Rebellion Customs in Philadelphia, a company that’s catered to celebrities like Justin Timberlake and rappers T.I. and Nas, agrees. Many of his clients wore a Rebellion design to the last MTV Video Music Awards — a sure sign the trend is reaching America’s youth. “A lot of people want to have something that no one else has,” Rorick says. “They want that one-of-a-kind piece.” Rorick is dismissive of attempts by big-name shoe manufacturers to create their own “customized” products. “A lot of sneaker companies try to do what we’re doing, but they don’t cut it,” Rorick says. “It’s not as artistic. They want to put out more of a product that is super simple. We take the time and do intricate work.”

Rebellion specializes in Adidas sneakers. While he’ll work with almost any shoe (he even hopes to one day lend his designs to high heels), Graham prefers the old school look of Nike Dunks, the high-top shoes with a flap near the top of the tongue for holding up pant hems so they don’t drag on the street. His penchant for old school style isn’t exclusive to shoes. In an upcoming pair of shoes, he plans to give a shout out to his hometown’s football team with a throwback Steelers shoe, complete with headshots of Terry Bradshaw and Franco Harris in a Mt. Rushmore-style design. “I love anything vintage. It’s the best genre,” he says. “Anything that inspires people to really look at it, I like.”

Making a One-of-a-Kind Shoe

The process of customizing a sneaker starts with Graham rubbing the entire shoe with acetone until it’s down to the bare leather. He then applies an acrylic paint used specifically on leather that flexes, so the design will not crack. Each color requires about three or four coats, with each layer taking 30 minutes to dry. Then it’s covered with a waterproof sealer. The shoes can be worn anywhere and if they get dirty, simply clean them with a sponge. Graham will also help with touchups, should the need arise. “A lot of people are too serious about their sneakers,” he says. “They’ll have $30,000 worth of shoes and they’ve never worn them. Shoes are meant to be worn.”

Coming Soon!

The Peters Township Resource Directory

Your guide to Peters Township!
  Community and township information,
 school district information and schedules
 and The Directory for business.

For more information about 
The Peters Township Resource Directory
 and to learn about advertising opportunities 
e-mail or call us at 412.257.0340