My name is Joel Moore and I am a 18 year-old shoe customizer. I used to love cooking and always thought I was going to make it my career. I even took 2 Gordon Ramsay Masterclasses and a Thomas Kellar Masterclasses, but eventually, I got tired of cooking. So I started exploring.I looked into a few different careers related to one of my longtime interests, shoes. One day, when I was browsing through Youtube, I came across a video of someone customizing their Air Force 1s with Poska markers. This video totally piqued my interest and I really wanted to learn more!A couple weeks after watching that video, I decided I wanted to customize a pair of sneakers. So I ordered some Poska markers, RIT dye, and some cheap fake Huaraches from Walmart. But when I finally finished the shoes, they were garbage!
I knew I could do significantly better…and I was determined.I studied shoe customizers on youtube including MARKO, Dejesus Custom Footwear, Sierato, Jordan Vincent, and even Jiedel. Then I broke my piggy bank and spent all my savings on some paints, an airbrush, and some Jordan 1 Lows to paint. You can see those on the top of my gallery page.One day, I heard about a business pitch competition at the Mcneese Seed Center. They had four divisions, which included a high school division, and the prize for winning was $5000. This sounded like an easy way to get money to kickstart my business, so I entered.
And I won!!! (I am the guy with the purple shirt)Since then, I have been able to purchase a vinyl cutter, a color printer for printing heat transfers, almost every color of leather paint, a spray booth for my airbrush, and a desk. I am also increasing my texting newsletter list and have had multiple customers. I have also started an Etsy shop as my primary online selling platform.