We were lucky to catch up with Anthony Amos recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Anthony, thanks for joining us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

The most significant risk I’ve taken so far was diving into art full-time. I was let go by a food safety lab after working there for over a year. It was very unexpected. Having worked my way up from fumbling around to leading shifts and training new employees, I had trouble understanding the decision. I was terrified. Walking to my car my anxiety was high. It was January and oddly enough I couldn’t feel the cold air. My mind tries desperately to find a convincing explanation and the courage to tell my wife. I was a newly minted father. My son was only nine months old and we had just bought a home three months ago.

March comes around. I had no job prospects. At this point, I’m under serious pressure. At dinner one night I told my wife about the conversation I had with myself on the ride home after being fired. See, I had dismissed this idea immediately being distraught and lacking confidence, but being desperate to earn money, I began to view this as my chance to prove I could be a full-time artist. After some convincing, my wife gave me her vote of confidence and for the next few weeks, I feverously created and attended every pop-up show and gallery event in Chicago.

My sales slowed in the fall after a successful first half of 2017. Begrudgingly, I joined the workforce again. This situation didn’t last long either as the company declared bankruptcy and laid off everyone. I couldn’t win. I had put painting on the back burner for months just to lose another job. My wife approached me with a soft but serious tone. It’s clear you’re trying hard, we see it. However, you are unhappy and disengaged at home. It’s time to return to painting. We believe in you”.

In March 2020, just a month after the pandemic reached Illinois, the governor shut down the state capitol. I happened to be a few blocks away training at an army facility. The disaster declaration has confined us to campus for the next 3 weeks. Understanding the gravity of the situation, I immediately began purchasing new equipment and materials. I had been studying and building my brand and social media following preparing to take a brand-new direction with my art full-time, sneaker customization.

I took initiative knowing that most people will be glued to their social media for interaction and commerce and began to create content surrounding my sneaker art. My gamble paid off! After three years of arduous work and failed attempts at being a full-time artist, something I did as a teen for pocket money brought me success!

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

I got into sneaker art and customization around 13. I had already been painting t shirts and jackets for fun for friends, family, and schoolmates. The sneakers came in because I was going into the school year without new shoes. As you may know, to most young people sneakers are a status symbol. Knowing that, I took out permanent markers and drew ny favorite characters at the time on the sides and touched up all the summer’s scuffs with paint. Walking through the school that morning, I was treated as if I had the most exclusive sneakers created, which in truth was true at least to a school of 7th and 8th graders. That summer, the rapper Nelly, made it easy for me to impress my schoolmates. He’d created a song “Air Force Ones” a song about custom sneakers. The validation proved to me I had something special. I kept with it all through high school and college, being my primary way to make money back then.

Back then I would stay up all night after class customizing shoes and shirts. It was very intense work, at times I forget to do homework or not sleep. many times I had worked until it was time to go the bus stop. At some point in highschool I was giving out my locker combination in order for students to drop off their shoes for customizing. It wasnt uncommon for me to come to school with an empty backpack to collect orders in the hallways either. Kids in the neighborhood either put shoes on my porch or knocked on my window late at night to slide me shoes. I’m sure my house was looked at kinda shady but I didn’t care because I just wanted to make money.

Now, I focus on creating an entire experience surrounding sneakers for my clients. Its not just the painting, cutting, and stitching of materials, its capturing the nostalgia of their inner childhood with a favorite character. Its the creative use of color to spark confidence or strategic use of composition to draw attention to them in crowed rooms. I help create original, collectible conversation pieces that express my clients individuality through sneakers.

Sneakers have inflitrsted every part of our culture now and as a result, the price has increased and the availability has declined due to the demand. Many have begun to lose the joy of collecting them. Thats were I came in, if you’ve become dissatisfied with current sneaker culture then my sneakers are your solution. My specialty is portraiture. I have created sneakers featuring favorite sports players, celebrities, and even loved ones. I often combine my realistic work with a street art flair, heavily influenced by growing up in the greater Chicago area.

The greatest moment of my art career so far was launching my non-profit program “Concepts to Kicks”. It’s an arts education collaboration between myself and a friend.

Our goal is to reward students with a product they already like (customized sneakers) while allowing them to express knowledge gained through pictorial storytelling about historical and contemporary movements.

We started this project to recapture students’ interest and effort due to remote learning and pandemic living. The project focus is on social justice and culturally sustainable pedagogy. Educators must consider how to use contemporary competitions and prizes in a way that reflects students’ interests and activities. ” By using sneaker customization as a way of rewarding a select group of students’ efforts in research and design, we can recapture interest in most school subjects through a school-wide sneaker design challenge that judges not one’s artistic abilities, but the quality of their research and ability to communicate creative ideas.

The student population was nearly entirely below the poverty line, issues of chronic absenteeism plagued the school, transience, and homelessness continuously altered the roster of students throughout the school year, and 60-70% of students fell well below the age level expectation of most STEM subjects. How do you get students interested, attentive, and engaged? The first year we launched in a school of roughly 450, k-8 students, between second and eighth grade alone, we had over 500 submissions. These kept coming until the winners were announced. Students depicted images of athletic history, world wars, environmentalism, cultural folklore, and contemporary movements such as hip-hop and Black Lives Matter. Students showed new levels of drive as the reward was not based solely on grades or long-term future skills. The reward was something they wanted, that they could wear. This was because they used professional customization artists to reflect their own designs and ideas. This turned the shoes into physical manifestations of their potential.

The school received positive press in the form of 2 CBS news stories where teachers and students were interviewed about their process and concepts. There were also three news articles, as well as an article written at the request of Teach magazine of Canada. This project sparked discussion in the community. Parents were thrilled at the prestigious opportunity their children had to become published artists at such a young age. Students were thrilled with the attention and most importantly, the students who didn’t win saw the possibility of achieving something substantial. This was not through the media or through the long-term hopes and promises of teachers and other mentors, but through their peers in the hallways and neighborhoods.

We are now in our third year of the program. This year my partner received ‘Teacher of the year and I was awarded the Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal by the Illinois Army National Guard.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I had always wanted to be an artist since I was 4 or 5. Around the age of 10, I began taking summer classes at the Art Institute of Chicago. From there I knew this was the college I wanted to attend. I actually found myself at the Art Institute of Atlanta for college. College was a worthwhile experience but it presented several challenges. At home, I was a big fish (or so I thought) in a small pond. Here in college, there were tons of talented artists who often hung out in the cafe, and each one better than last. I felt overwhelmed. The competitive spirit was palpable immediately and I realized it would be challenging to make a name here.

It was also difficult to live as an art student. This was my first taste of the “starving artist” lifestyle. Most days I ate once, likely at lunch or dinner, and typically it was chicken breast and rice. One time I ate an unusually large can of corn for about 5 days because I had no money that week. Every other week and perhaps any opportunity I saw I would jump the train to save money on train passes or sneak on the bus to avoid the fare. Any opportunity to crash at a classmates’ apartment closer to school was a godsend. Many people also slept in the library in order to save money for emergency. See, the issue was that my usual ways of making money were obsolete. I couldn’t sell custom sneakers to artists, they couldn’t afford them anyway. I could only make money taking English, Color Theory, and Art 101 courses for Audio, Video, and Fashion students. This was dependent on another student referring me. Fortunately I didn’t need art supplies because I brought my own to college with me.

College got really difficult for me in my second year. My housing was in jeopardy because my loans were exhausted and I had no other options. The school wouldn’t budge. That semester I was dropping classes by the day because I spent so much time in the financial aid office asking for assistance and grants. Ultimately, I had to drop out. Immediately I felt deppression sink in. As I waited the last few days for my family to arrive I spent the time either crying, sleeping or hugging my roommates. As I loaded the car with last few items, I remember dropping to my knees and gently rubbing the parking lot pavement. In a sense, I did, since I leaned over and kissed it as if I were mourning a loved one. A decade-long dream which I trained hard for, down the drain in the second year.

I spent the next 2 years depressed and bitter. I only slept and ate for weeks, barely spoke and when I did, not much I could say. I felt abandoned and betrayed by everyone who helped me and exposed me to the possibilities of art. I didn’t have the spirit to draw, paint, or do anything art-related. If I tried to force it I would only wind up very angry and sobbing uncontrollably. I also began to drink, smoke marijuana heavily, and wander around town aimlessly in a haze, usually forgetting what I had done that night. I barely remember anything significant about those 2 years and definitely nothing positive.

After a while I honestly got tired of feeling pitiful. I had a moment of clarity and realized I had become something I despised, a quieter and a sore loser. After dropping out i convinced myself i couldn’t be a legitimate artist because i hadn’t earned my degree, my claim to title. It wasn’t that I didn’t create some impressive work before attempting college, I just forgot everything my master teacher taught me as a child.

I brushed myself off and took a chance. I bet my whole future as an artist on one last piece. If I succeed in creating a quality piece then I’m done. I created a black and grey portrait about 12″ by 24″ over a week. I had restored my confidence enough to keep working at my art and continue my artist journey with optimism.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

What drives me to create other than instinct is to make space for my tribe, the creatives. My experiences as a younger person were very confusing. I didn’t have a real art teacher in school before high school. I was showered with praise at home but in school I was chastised and occasionally belittled for my creativity. I would be told “take life and school seriously, there’s no money in art” or “art is for lazy people”. One of my most vivid memories is of a teacher in elementary ripping my drawings in front the class, another is a teacher making fun of me in front of another teacher, my class, and then hers for doing a career report on Pablo Picasso, an artist I learned about last weekend. Why this was also troubling and traumatizing for me was because on the weekends and in the summer, professional artists were my teachers. They spent hours showing me galleries and museums, teaching me about Dali, Van Gogh, and others. I was especially enamored by Basquiat because he was a famous young black man who I felt would understand my dilemma. I felt hated at school only because I preferred art over a banal education and uninspired teachers who only valued me for state testing scores.

This gave me the drive to prove to the world I was here, to force them to acknowledge me with the status of a Warhol, to live forever like Da Vinci, to influence the future like Munch. Overall, I wanted to advocate for artists like I wished someone would’ve done for me. We artist exist outside the norm. In the 90’s, creativity in children was rebellion. The message was its better to blend in than stand out, and I am still fighting against that 30 years later.

Now I use that drive to inspire the youth and young adults to pursue not only the arts, but entreprenuerism or even employment creatively. Now is the time to disrupt the status quo, the world needs creative people now more than ever. I have my youth program Concepts to Kicks, I do charity art events around Chicago, and I mentor creatives of all ages around the globe. I use my experiences and success to spark joy and optimism in hopes that other artists will pay it forward. I hoping to see a day where no child will feel insecure about creative expression.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sneakerfarekicks.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/sneakerfarekicks
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SneakerFare
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthony-amos-6508a0118/
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/anthonyamoskicks