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My name is Chris Hui and I'm a custom sneaker designer.
[music playing] These custom sneakers are inspired
by all the crazy Goldy Gopher fans out there.
We've got the back maroon and gold striping inspired by the U
of M overalls that everyone rocks on game day.
We've got the big "M" logo on the front of the toe
and then there's the fake gopher fur swoosh on the tongue,
and of course buck teeth at the top to top it all off.
[music playing] There's kind of been a recent trend towards wild
and loud and crazy clothing and shoes are part of that.
Back in the day, Nike just released white shoes
with a red swoosh or something, there wasn't anything all
that unique out there.
So then there was a group of people
who just decided they were going to take it into their own hands
and start customizing their own things,
kind of like anything in life.
I think with , you know,
the growth of the internet there are sneaker dedicated forums
where everyone can share this stuff and it just started
to explore it a little bit.
I've worked with Nike, other people have worked with Nike
and they've acknowledged that it's kind of an aspect
of the whole sneaker industry.
So, it's pretty of cool to look back and see
where it's come from, but it's still maintained the underground
aspect of it where people would rather have people believe
that they've got this exclusive pair of shoes and they can try
to figure out where I got them from, other than knowing
that I painted them because it's fun being able
to talk with them all.
People will be like-- dude where did you get those shoes?
And I'll just tell them I painted them
and they say-- you did what?
It's kind of fun to explain it.
There's a lot more knowledge and insight
and effort I put towards trying to brand myself
and building my network
and definitely building my internet presence
and my global presence.
When I came to school I didn't have a Facebook page
or a Twitter, maybe that's
because those things weren't quite as prominent then,
but definitely kind of looking through companies
and seeing all the different techniques the most successful
companies have used and our case studies in class have been nice
and trying to, not just replicate it,
but tune it to my business and see how I can use
that kind of thought process.
[music playing] Goldy's going to break these shoes
out at the national mascot competition in Disney World
for the first time and he's going
to breaking every other mascot's necks
by having the coolest shoes at the competition.
[music playing]