We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Alexis Pagano. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Alexis below.
Hi Alexis, thanks for joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
Everything happens on its own timing, but I certainly wished I had started my custom sneaker journey sooner. The entirety of my business was spawned during the early days of COVID after I got sent home early from my Study Abroad semester as an undergrad and couldn’t find a job. At this point in my life, I had never heard of the custom movement and I definitely had never seen a custom shoe in my life. One day I came across someone painting a pair of shoes on Youtube and I figured I could do the same thing, if not better. I bought a beginner paint kit from Angelus Direct and the next day I took my mom to the mall with me. I bought a pair of all white Sage Air Force 1’s and decided I’d do a simple Spongebob/Patrick themed shoe the next day. My mom went to work and two hours in I called her saying, “Mom this is impossible, I’m horrible at this, I’m not going to finish.” Luckily, I didn’t give up! I had to finish what I started so by the time my mom got home from work, I had a full custom shoe painted to show her. I think I surprised not only her, but also myself. Four year later, I’m so thankful I kept going. That’s the motto I carry with me to this day. It’s not that I can’t do something, it’s how can I figure this out? I always push myself to keep going and not stop. Over the past four years, trial and error has been a huge part of my success. I love testing my ideas on a pair of beater shoes and then use that gained knowledge to translate that to an actual custom. If I don’t know how to do it or I can’t figure it out, I research and then replicate the process. Recently, I started working as an instructor at Majorwavezlab. During my short time there, I’ve learned SO much. Working for them has opened so many doors and channels of knowledge that I wish I had started working with them sooner.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
My name is Alexis but I go by AP! I am a sneaker artist, and I provide custom sneakers for all, no matter the age, size, gender, etc. I think in a sea of custom artists, it’s easy to get lost because we all offer the same services/art, right? Not necessarily…I think what sets me apart from the others is my diversity in the trade. Some people just sew or just paint while others just restore shoes. There’s so many avenues to go down in this trade that it’s hard to do or at least try it all. Over the course of my career I’ve tried just about everything there is. I have the willingness to learn and be better, to grow! I want to always exceed my clients expectations so right off the bat, we develop a game plan to achieve what they want – mockups, idea searching, testing, you name it. During the process, I’m super hands on and will be attentive to their wishes. As I go, I send progress pictures so if things need to be changed or edited the client can be rest assured they are getting exactly what they asked for. At the end of the day, the most special moments during my custom career have been seeing some of my clients reactions. They will send me videos, pictures, and most of my clients are repeat customers. Seeing their dreams become reality is what I live for. As a shoe artist, I love being able to translate the visions of my customers and my own onto an irregular canvas…the shoe. There’s something magical about taking such a common object in our lives and transforming it into a walking piece of art that gets out into the world to show off. These 1 of 1’s are no stagnant piece of art.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
From the beginning of my story to now, AP Customs has been built on resilience. I’m not a huge artist. I’ve barely made my mark on social media platforms, I’m still working on launching a professional website, and I’m in the process of becoming an official business. Part of that is because I like the intimacy of staying small and the other part is that I’m simply not ready to be big. I’m lucky that this hobby of mine has led me to where I am, and I can wholeheartedly say that I’m ready to go to the next level. I actually just took a seven month break from it all to reevaluate if this is something I really want to pursue. It is. After being on Etsy for years, I was tired of not being able to challenge myself or find my niche. I was making mundane designs and receiving chump change from Etsy for all the time and effort I put in. What once was something I loved doing became something that was a chore. I hated what I was doing and at one point I seriously had to question what I was doing. I didn’t want to hate what I had once loved, what I had immense passion for. So I too my break. I was only going to do if for a month, then that turned into three months, and then seven. I came back and started teaching custom shoe classes at Majorwavezlab in Miami and I fell back in love. I’ve slowly started to put myself back out there and I can confidently say that I am ready to be all in.
We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.
Keeping in touch with clients is tough, especially when you and the client are only familiar with each other via online platforms. The cool thing about this career is that I have the opportunity to meet clients along the way. Whenever I am out on the town, the first thing I notice about people is their shoes, specifically those with sneakers. I love starting a conversation about shoes. Shoes are something that everyone can enjoy because realistically our shoes are a reflection of ourselves, which I find intriguing. At my shoe class, I’m able to meet tons of sneaker enthusiasts and share my love and passion for the work I do. Those are the best people to stay in touch with because usually they are the ones that want the more detailed work. Living in Miami has truly opened so many doors to my career because most people here want that one unique thing that sets them apart and has others running to them asking where they got that. Over the years, I reach out to some of my closer clients to check in, see how their shoes are doing, if they need any cleaning/touchups, etc. I’ve never had any clients send shoes back for cleaning or touchups, but they will, however, share their stories with me about their shoes. Hearing their stories reminds why I do do this. I love customizing shoes and I love helping clients turn their visions into reality.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://apcustoms5.com
- Instagram: apcustoms5
- Other: Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/shopAPCustoms
