We were lucky to catch up with Jose Tapia recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Jose thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?
Couple years ago I landed a job I thought I was set for life with driving celebrities for a living amazing pay, company car, Healthcare etc. But even dough I was financially stable I wasn’t happy in what I did, one day as I was waiting for a client to call me I was looking through instagram reels and boom I stumble upon a video of someone painting shoes. I started messing around with couple old shoes and would wear then on my days off. People would see me and ask, “hey where did you get those shoes? I love them! So when I told them I painted them I started getting lots of people bringing in their shoes for me to paint for them. Due to being one of the top chauffeurs in my company it didn’t allow me to do what I rapidly grew to love painting shoes. It was then that I had to face one of the biggest decisions of my life stay with job security or pursue a career in Art from scratch.
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.
For those of you that don’t know me my name is Jose Tapia and I go by the artistic name “Zapatos”. As ive mentioned before when my job started clashing with painting shoes on the side 5 years ago I made the hard decision of quitting my job to paint shoes fulltime. It’s took alot of sacrifices discipline and self belief to keep my business alive 5 years and counting. I ow all my success to GOD for putting many supportive strangers/friends in my path to turn my dreams into reality. My business specializes in taking a blank pair of shoes and customizing it into a one of a kind art piece that will give confidence to every single person that wears them. I can turn even the cheapest oldest shoe into something that looks like it belongs in a museum or displayed to never be worn as many of my clients have mentioned. I am most proud of myself for taking that jump the average person is scared to take and actually sticking to it even when there was no sign of progress. Thanks to that I continue to inspire others every day to also quit their jobs and follow their own dreams.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
5 years ago before the pandemic I quit my job and invested every single penny I had in my savings. I bought every single paint color, the best brushes and other supplies I would need to get me started. Just when I was getting my business going Boom! The pandemic hits there I was with no job, money, or clients to keep my business afloat. One day when I was watching TV I get a text from two of my good friends Young Blaccs and Ceejayr to reach out to LatinBeastTV because they were looking for someone to paint shoes for Andy Ruiz (the former first Mexican Heavy Weight Champion of the world) next fight. The day Andy Ruiz presented the shoes I had painted for him on his social media account I became one of the hottest Sneaker Artist in LA and everyone wanted shoes painted by me.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
My mission driving my journey is to one day start my own non profit Art center for the youth in my community. We tend to lose many kids and young adults to the streets due to lack of guidance therefore I hope to one day help change the narrative.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @Zapatos.la
Image Credits
Gilberto Tapia (@shotsbygil)