Kicks for a Cause

KfaC Delirium

2008-04-23T06:06:00.000-07:00

If you have not checked the time box of this post, it is approximately 6am.

Peter, Amy, and I are still in Amy's apartment, watching the sunrise and experiencing true KFaC delirium.

Amy is slaving away on the website while Peter and I are decoding the HTML for our fabulous photos.

The evening began with an assembly line that consisted of sealing and lacing the shoes. After this, I created a makeshift studio where umbrellas and lamps created the perfect setting for our shoe photoshoot.

Then the uploading began...

And now it is 6am and my alarm for work will be going off shortly. Awesome.

The rest of KFaC should bake us cookies.

At last - shoes for sale!

2008-04-23T01:47:00.000-07:00

It’s been a long journey.

From the initial planning stages to the meet and greets with Jefferson and Variety to the idea formation process to the actual shoe painting, a lot of time and energy has gone into setting our socially responsible mission into motion.

And now, we invite you to see our first batch of finished products.

The first in what we hope will be a long line of shoe series brought to you by the students in our inner cities who have something to say and think you should take notice.

It’s hard to describe the range of emotions we’ve experienced over the past month working with these amazingly talented and creative students. We’re inspired to keep this project growing and explore the different ways we can allow more students to voice their opinions and let you into their world.

And about the shoes themselves: Quite frankly, they are incredible.

I only wish I could come close to approaching that level of artistic ability.

Please check them out in our store, where pictures of the shoes are accompanied by photos of the student artists and their personal statements.

Each shoe has a story – a unique, interesting and engaging story.

We invite you to take a look.

If you’d like to buy a pair of shoes, great, but even if you’re just browsing, you’re expanding these students’ audience and augmenting the power of their message.

And that’s all we could ever ask.

Thanks for following along on our startup journey, and we hope you’ll stick with us as we look toward the future.

Customized concordance,

Peter

Kicks galore!

2008-04-15T23:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, we started our sessions at Jefferson High School. This school was specifically chosen for the program because of their Creative Arts & Expression Learning Community. To say it simply, these students are talented. Wow.

A big group of us traveled down to Jefferson today to begin the painting process. The students were quite excited. We walked into Room 155 with two big boxes filled with shoes and another box filled with brushes and paints from Angelus paints.

Some of the students already finished their templates when we started today so they were able to start painting right away after we spoke to them for a bit about their shoes. Some of the issues they are illustrating are global warming, gang violence, war, pride, self identity and more! Not only were these students socially conscious but they were also very aware of how they want their shoes to look. They are definitely artists to say the least!

This student in this picture on the right is Bree. She is customizing shoes based on global warming. She is currently working on the flames part of the artwork. She will be also drawing an earth on the top of the shoe to symbolize how the earth is essentially burning/on flames because of global warming.

There are more pictures of our sessions in the Gallery. I definitely encourage you to check them out. I can't wait to go back tomorrow and see the rest of their work!

Jefferson, commence!

2008-04-15T21:12:00.000-07:00

Yesterday marked the start of the shoe creation process at Jefferson High School. In under a week's time, we'll have a full arsenal of beautifully creative art in motion, thanks to the students at Jefferson and at Variety Boys & Girls Club.

The room we've been given at Jefferson is a work of art in itself. I have no idea what the technical name of it is (still art?) but the center of the room displays a multi-tiered surface covered in cloth and surrounded by things like wine bottles, flowers and cheese graters.

Yes, cheese graters.

My guess is it’s an attempt to look like the Tuscany region of Italy, where the Renaissance – arguably art’s golden age – originated.

Some of the sketches produced by the students at Jefferson were astounding. I went up to one student near the beginning of the session to ask him about any ideas he had, and he pulled out a sketch from his backpack that he had already created in anticipation of the project.

Rock on, my friend.

Amy will be uploading pictures soon of our second day with Jefferson – so check out our “gallery” to see some of the developing designs!

Customized concordance,

Peter

Angelus Shoe Polish Company: Manufactured Delight

2008-04-05T00:38:00.000-07:00

What's up everyone? I'm back for post No. 2.

Ginny and I traveled to Santa Fe Springs yesterday to buy paint for our second round of customization at Jefferson High School (to commence April 14). Adriana Gutierrez, a friend of ours who is the artist behind King of Sneakers custom footwear, told us there really is no alternative to buying paint from Angelus Shoe Polish Company.

Now we know why.

Linda Angelos and her husband, Peter, who own the vertically integrated manufacturing plant, are two of the most delightful people Ginny and I have come across during our time in Los Angeles.

The Angelos' run Angelus in Angeles.

I know, I know.

A few moments after we arrived, Linda, the proud mother of five children (one of whom graduated from USC), described what we'd be doing: Walking through the warehouse and scoping out inventory.

But she didn't term it that way.

"Let's go play," she said.

And play we did.

We told Linda we needed some blue paint. She gathered her five different shades of premium blue paint and dabbed them on her wrist for us to see. We chose sapphire.

Red? Three options. Metals? Four. Brown? Eight.

Soon, Linda's wrist could have passed for a giant DisneyLand lollipop.

Ginny and I walked away with paint, deglazer, finisher, stainer and shoe polisher to boot - all without breaking our bank.

Angelus is one of three family-owned businesses of its kind left in the United States. Linda and Peter informed us that not so long ago, five such businesses existed in Southern California alone.

Here's to hoping Angelus is the last one standing.

Customized concordance,

Peter

Second Visit to Variety and Shoe Painting!

2008-04-03T12:32:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday night the KfaC team made their way on over to Variety Boys and Girls club for our first ever shoe painting session!

I would have to say that many of us were filled with nervous excitement about finally putting action to our project but as soon as the kids started filing in we knew it was the start of a rediculously fun night.

When we got the students into the art room Koran and Mike ran around encouraging students to show them what their designs were.

To Mike and Koran's dismay some of the students, especially the girls, were having lots of fun giving them a hard time.

After we passed out the shoes and supplies the kids were off!

With the help of Zach, Chris, and James, three USC artists with a talent for custom shoes, KfaC was able to help the students transfer their designs from paper to shoe.

We will be making our way back to Variety on Friday and at the enthusiastic request of the students we will be starting earlier so they have more time to paint!!

Peace, love and shoes!
-Ginny

Re-Cap of Variety Visit

2008-04-01T20:15:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday we visited Variety Boys & Girls Club, located in the Boyle Heights area of Los Angeles. (Picture of Chris and Peter in front of the club).

Our first session went over very well. It's amazing to see what these students can come up with. Here's a list of some of the causes that they will be illustrating:

Drug abuse
Teenage pregnancy
Immigration
Medicare
Gang violence
Global warming

It's really eye opening to see the issues these students have to face everyday.

As a follow up to what I wrote in my previous post, here are the Your Kicks shoes the students will be designing on! All 30 of these shoes are white now... however by Friday, they will all be decorated!

Here are the students brainstorming about their causes. They will be designing all of their shoes in their art room.

These students were not shy to ask us questions. I spent a lot of my time working one specific girl (see above picture). She was very enthusiastic about the project. She just needed a little help on the imagery portion of her cause.
Peter mentioned the immigration sketch, here it is! Can you believe this is drawn by a 12 year old? I definitely couldn't do that then... nor can I draw that well now!
So that was our first session at Variety. As we drove back to USC from Boyle Heights, I couldn't help but take a picture of the Los Angeles skyline from the view of the 6th Street bridge. This view made me think about what I love the most about LA -- all the different pockets of cultures. I think there is no better place than Los Angeles to bring up the issues of diversity...

Jefferson High School Meet and Greet

2008-04-01T17:31:00.001-07:00

Today Koran and I ventured over to Jefferson High School for a little meet and greet before the painting begins. At this school, KfaC will be an after school program. The teachers helping us out were THRILLED about the program. The students also had great ideas and really seemed excited when they saw what could actually be done on a pair of shoes.

Issues such as gang violence, drugs, animal and human rights, as well as overall cruelty kicked off our discussion on causes that could be used as inspiration for the shoes.

Once the production days were set and the students left the classroom, Koran and I received a tour of the school including art rooms we could use, as well as the cafeteria and library that could be gallery venues.

Overall, a successful day!

Happy April fools....

First shoe workshop with Variety B&G Club!

2008-04-01T10:19:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone,

Monday we finally dug our feet in and started the meat of the project - designing the shoes. We met with our 30 students from Variety Boys & Girls Club, talking with them about the final issue they'd like to bring to life and then helping them apply their ideas to a sketch of the shoes.

There were a few really awesome designs.

Of course, these ideas might change between now and Friday, when the shoes will hopefully be completed, but keep an eye out for these designs:

Issue: Immigration, Design: Mexican flag, U.S. flag, U.S. passport themed
Issue: War and conflict, Design: An elaborated "stop war" detailed enough to front an ad campaign

Those are only two of the 30 shoes Variety will be proud to present.

We'll be back to update you as we visit Jefferson High School today and then go back to Variety Wednesday and Friday!

Customized concordance,

Peter

Excitement!

2008-03-31T14:52:00.000-07:00

Everything is coming together...

1) We have a facebook group: Facebook us here!
2) Nicole and I got our first set of white shoes last night. It was aaaaaaamazing to finally see them in front of us. Hopefully, Peter will post a picture of him surrounded by our beautiful white shoes. :)
3) We are starting our first session tonight at the Variety Boys & Girls Club!

Words cannot describe how excited I am for tonight. It has been a couple of weeks since we last spoke to the students from the Boys & Girls Club. They were filled with such enthusiasm when we talked to them about our project. But now that project is no longer just an idea to them and they are actually doing it, I can only imagine how more enthusiastic they are going to be!

Tonight we will be meeting with 15 high school and 15 middle school students. We will first discuss issues or causes that are important to them (hence the "Cause" part of Kicks for a Cause). Hopefully through these discussions and having them write down them down, they will have all their tools needed to convey their thoughts into art!

These students are also quite talented themselves. They were hand selected to be a part of the leadership club at the Boys & Girls club. I'm sure they will just blow us away with their ideas.