We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sailboat Lewis a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Sailboat, appreciate you joining us today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard
One of the major things that we do differently at Sailboat Supplies from a normal sneaker business is create customized sneakers. While many are used to seeing sneakers painted and customized with different surface level techniques, the sneakers that we create utilize different components that have been removed from different pairs of sneakers and combine them to create a “Frankenstein” sneaker of sorts. One of the most popular customization projects that we traditionally complete is a Sole Swap Hybrid. With sole swap hybrids, we are able to remove soles from the upper components of shoes and replace them with a different sole. This is useful in situations where someone may have an upper that they find stylish or comfortable but they don’t like the cushioning system that was utilized; with a sole swap hybrid, we can replace the uncomfortable sole with a more appropriately cushioned system for the wearer. The most popular sole swap hybrid that we complete is a “4D sole swap” where we utilize a 3D printed sole from Adidas on different models of Nike and Adidas uppers. Most recently, we have been getting into golf cleat sole swaps to provide a streetwear flare on the golf course.
Additionally, we have been getting into more reconstruction customization projects. With these projects, we will be building sneakers from the ground up— selecting materials, tracing and cutting sneaker patterns, sewing the components together to create a 3D structure, and finally lasting the shoe and attaching the upper from a sole removed from an authentic Jordan/Nike shoe! The first line of sneakers will be a line of 20 different pair of Jordan 4’s, influenced by the Nike SB Dunk “4/20” series, with each shoe being inspired by a different strain of Marijuana.
Another service we offer at Sailboat Supplies is complete basic sneaker restoration such as sole de-yellowing, basics midsole repaints, and sole swaps and sole reglues. The restoration services that we offer as a small business are a bit more limited but you have a project that you are looking to have done we can’t complete, we will be more than happy to reference you to someone that can!
As far as reselling, we at Sailboat Supplies have felt as though sneaker community has become saturated with resellers and individuals that are new to the “sneaker game”. While it’s great to see the community grow, it can sometimes get frustrating to see everyone favor the “flavor of the week” sneakers and color ways that release on what seems to be a more frequent basis. What we aim to do at Sailboat Supplies is focus on some of the sneakers of yesteryear— we try to show love to the vintage and OG sneakers from the 1980s, 90s, and early 2000s. Many times, we will even establish displays of vintage sneakers, not suitable for wear, at different events and conventions to help to educate newer sneaker enthusiasts as to the history of sneakers that remain popular to this day and continue to be “retro’d” and given new life in an updated iteration.
Sailboat, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
What’s going on, I’m Sailboat Lewis of Sailboat Supplies. Originally I began my sneaker journey at age 14, around the time when Nike SB was first beginning and Supra Footwear was at the top of its game. I began collecting skate shoes early on and IMMEDIATELY became obsessed with sneaker culture. After 10 or so years of sticking closer to the skate sneaker scene, I moved from the east coast to Southern California an began to venture into the realm of basketball shoes. I got sucked in very quickly and started to see Jordans at store. I thought that maybe, I could buy them, and sell them or trade them to get sneakers that I wanted for myself. This started a snowball effect and I found myself buying sneakers more regularly and searching to find good deals. After several years of light resale, I began to find myself buying sneakers more heavily and attending events and conventions. I fell in love with the convention circuit and now travel the country, selling my wares.
Eventually, through my travels and connections to the sneaker community, I started to see people that were restoring shoes and customizing shoes. I started to fall in love with the idea of creating 1-of-1 sneakers that had never been seen before and soon found myself investing in all the materials and gear needed to create my own sneakers from scratch. After completing several “sole swap hybrid” projects and combining soles from adidas shoes and uppers from Nike shoes, I knew it was time to make my OWN pair of shoes as well. I invested in San Diego Custom Footwear’s sneaker construction class and created my first Air Jordan 4 from the ground up. Keeping a strong bond with the SDCF instructors and affiliates, I was able to sneak my way into an ‘internship’ in the last months I was in San Diego before moving to the east coast.
Now living on the east coast, I am looking to continue my business and get involved with the event and convention circuit on the other side of the country. Although I am unable to physically help as much with SDCF, I remain close with them and hope to continue to remain active in the custom footwear community. I will certainly be continuing with my sole swap hybrid projects on the east coast and look forward to expanding my repertoire of sole swaps to include golf cleats in the near future!
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
Over the last several years, I have recognized that there has been a major pivot in the sneaker industry, there has been a massive influx of sneaker resellers and individuals that are collecting and purchasing sneakers. New color ways seem to come out on a daily basis and many seem to be focused on getting the “flavor of the week” color ways and designs. At the turn of 2022, I decided that I was going to refocus what I was selling and how I was involving myself in the sneaker industry. I wanted to stand out, to do something different. I completely rebranded and started to focus on building a more curated collection of vintage and OG sneakers, things that were harder to find and arguably, even harder to sell. I had established a collection that was incredibly unique, with OG and vintage sneakers that were in amazing condition and had been incredibly well-preserved. At SneakerCon LA, May 2022, I had nearly my ENTIRE collection of vintage and OG sneakers purchased in what was nearly a massive scam. Luckily, I was able to obtain all the money in the sale but this left me with a predicament— what was I to do next? I had focused so heavily on building that collection, only to nearly lose it. Luckily, this instance sparked a fire in me and helped to fund a cross country relocation. Now that I’m getting settled in the Northeast, it’s time to refocus and pivot again! While I intend on continuing to build a curated collection, I am also going to be focusing much more heavily on my customization projects and doing things that allow me to create and feel inspired with my work.
While my business will always be rooted in sneakers, the focus is certainly becoming more narrow to help stand out more and build a more unique look that you won’t be able to find anywhere else!
Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.
One question that I typically get asked is “How do you make those shoes?!” My sole swap hybrids are pretty unique— there are only a few other people that I know about that are completing such projects at this point in time.
When I first began to see sole swap hybrid projects on social media, I IMMEDIATELY became obsessed and wanted a pair for myself. I began to search around and found several artists that were making such custom projects at the time and started to inspect and follow all their work. When I started to get a few ideas, I began to reach out to some of the artists that I found that had already done what it was I was hoping to do. I began to reach out to every person that I found that had completed a sole swap hybrid. I won’t lie, I was persistent, perhaps even annoying. But eventually, I had a few of them respond to me and provide me with some hints. I watched hours of YouTube videos to learn about traditional sole swaps and absorbed all the information I could.
I found three different pairs of shoes that I thought might work for a swap and decided to do a three way sole swap. I did the first two pairs for practice and, although they turned out decent, there was a lot of learning that occurred. Luckily, the third time was the charm, and my last of the three way sole swap turned out GREAT! I was hooked, and I needed to create.
Throughout my time creating, I have had to experiment a TON. I have spent hundreds of dollars trying different sneaker cements, trying different power tools, working with different chemicals… It has been a grind for sure. Now, I have a much better process and am able to complete projects much more quickly in the past but I still have so much to learn. I utilize YouTube heavily to learn as much as I can- it really is an amazing resource that is rich with information if you can use it correctly. I also find that bouncing ideas off of other individuals working on similar projects can certainly help me to gain insight into different techniques that may help me and as such, I am constantly communicating with other sneaker restoration artists and sneaker customizes. I’ve found that the community can be incredibly supportive and as I have grown my own skills, I have been able to help others with projects of their own!
Contact Info:
- Website: Www.SailboatSupplies.XYZ
- Instagram: @SailboatSupplies
- Facebook: Www.facebook.com/sailboatssneakers
- Twitter: @SailboatSuplies
- Youtube: Www.YouTube.com/sailboatsupplies