Whilst at University I worked on a drawing for 3 months and in 2017 the hard work paid off - I won the Young Artists National Open Art Awards ‘17 for a drawing of Conor McGregor. I started working part-time at Niketown London in retail for a year. After a while I felt my artistic skills were going to waste and I had to change it somehow. I wanted to be an artist, not someone who sells shoes. I want to be creating them.I created a portfolio on shoes I had collected over the years but weren't being used. I ripped shoes apart, put them back together with different silhouettes; painting on them. I wanted to experiment and explore different ways of creating a new look shoe. 

After finishing this mini portfolio, I sent copies off to over 20 companies but didn't hear back from anyone. Although this was damaging, I am not the sort of person to sit back and dwell on it. My last shot was taking it to Nike HQ.  I finally got my break I was hoping for and was invited by Nike to design Nike’s 2018 London Air Force 1 Campaign; sketched and digitised designs for bitmap and laser engraver; researched a variety of trends, colours, and materials; worked in The Cube in Nike Town London, the flagship store, customising Air Force 1s with our designs for thousands of customers, including celebrities such as Jorja Smith as well Mason Mount & Phil Foden for their England debuts. 

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After working with Nike the other companies that surrounded them then started to reach out including Adidas, Converse, Puma & Ellesse. Creating customisation workshops for each of them, I was now beginning to build a real life portfolio of the biggest footwear brands in the world. 

 

In 2019 I was asked by EA Sports to design the FIFA 20 Volta Pitch with two-time world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, and customised Adidas Superstars at the FIFA 20 launch party for players such as Kaká, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Ian Wright & Rhian Brewster. BBC Sport were at the event and interviewed me about my designs, they asked whether I had customised footballers boots, which hadn't been a thought until then, I decided to make my move right there and started to hand my business cards out explaining to the players that if interested I would more than happy to customise their boots for the new season. My first client was Declan Rice and that is where my business properly propelled.

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At the start of 2021, I started a new business customising footballers' boots including Lucas Digne, Adama Traoré, Oleksandr Zinchenko & Ollie Watkins. Most recently customising boots for Marcus Rashford, Mason Mount, & Romeo Beckham. I was nominated for Best Boot Artist of the Year 2021 by FootballBootsYT.

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I was also invited by Chelsea FC in April 2022 to Stamford Bridge to customise a pair of Air Max in celebration of Nike Air Max Day as well as being commissioned to draw Antonio Rüdiger & Malang Sarr in April. 

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In June 2022, I collaborated with PUMA to customise limited edition boots for Usain Bolt, Shevchenko and others for Unicef's Soccer Aid. 
 

Continue to follow my journey on my Instagram @jordan.dawson to see what's next!

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