We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Colin Szumski a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Colin, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

Hello my name is Colin Szumski and I am from Medina, Ohio which is about 30min south of Cleveland. I had started painting shoes during my college years and covid. I had been doing custom shoes for about 2 years until i had my first big life decision. The end of my senior year was coming up, I have been studying architecture at Kent State University and I had to make a decision whether to pursue that after school by going to grad school / internships and all that. OR go forward with my brand and pursue footwear design.

I could tell about midway through my senior year I wasnt as motivated and passionate about architecture as I once was. There were points where I would be working on my shoes during the class studio time (the professor wasnt the biggest fan of that but orders had to get done)

Fast forward, I decide to not go forward with architecture so i moved back home and this is where I started to take tik tok and posting seriously. I would post everyday. I was kind of just floating through life until something popped up which something did.

Im on vacation and I get a text from one of my good friends. Her and her boyfriend were kind of in the same boat as me where they didnt want to do architecture and wanted to get out of Ohio. They were planning to move to LA at the end of the summer and asked if I wanted to go with them. I thought about it a little bit but It didnt take me that long to decide. I figured LA is a better spot to be rather then ohio with what I wanted to do with my brand and footwear design.

So all 4 of us rented a UHaul and drove across the country without any of us having a plan but we knew we would all figure it out. I was there for about 2 months when I saw a post from @Majorwavezlab and saw that they were close to me. i Went in and met Ruben Barrazza (@Majorwavezz). We talked and got hired on the team as an intern then eventually hired onto the team.

I have worked with a lot of cool brands/people and done a lot of cool events, some to mention are
– Nesquik, Overwatch 2, Jake Paul, Jaylen Ramsey, Disney, Red Bull, PUMA
– Some notable events were NBA 2k23 Summer League, Sneakercon

So I have just been doing my own thing while working with the lab for about a year now and there are rumors about another location opening up in Miami. I had been to Miami before and I loved it. It was crazy timing because another company reached out to me about another position around the same time. That one didnt work out but it got me thinking about possibly moving to Miami. A couple days later after some final tweaks I decided i was moving to Miami to be in charge of the new location. We are currently doing a pop up style collab with Grails Miami .

I have taken many risks by moving across the country 2 times within a year and a half of each other But i trust myself to know where it will be hard but I will figure it out somehow someway. Bet on Yourself.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My Name is colin szumski I started customizing shoes during quarantine of covid. Started painting on my own shoes, posted it and grew from there. I remember my cousin was my first client and I charged him only $20. Now I have done work for over $1,000.

I provide custom shoe art, whether that is your favorite sports team logo or having a light up pair with 3D printed attachments.

Im most proud of is i bring a unique edge to the custom shoe world that no one has really seen before. By bringing an architecture background with 3D printing and softwares.

i want people to know about me that I am just a kid from Medina, Ohio trying to make it big.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

I have people say to me that my prices are too high which I can understand sometimes. But non-creatives dont understand why the price is that high. Its not just a number, its years of experimenting and making mistakes and learning from them that allows me to mark that as the price.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I would say the most rewarding thing is getting those messages from clients once the shoes arrive saying how much they love them and cant wait to give them as a gift or wear them.

Also when you work hard on a project and you post it and a lot of other people like it too

Contact Info:

• Website: chummyscustoms.com
• Instagram: @_chummys
• Youtube: @_chummys
• Other: Tik Tok: @_chummys

Image Credits
@shoot4greatness