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2. coverstory
BY MORGAN LYLE
Special to Newsday
T
homas Vella
knows that dress-
ing well means
being fashionable
from head to toe.
As a student at
Plainview-Old
Bethpage John F. Kennedy
High School, Vella became
something of a sneakerhead
who was always on the look-
out for unusual athletic shoes
that would match the rest of
his clothes. Finding custom-
ized sneakers to match his
limited wallet, however, was
the real challenge.
So Vella took the do-it-your-
self route, learning how to cus-
tomize sneakers from watching
YouTube videos, including one
by Nick Mangia of Hauppauge.
Vella contacted Mangia, who
began customizing sneakers
four years ago, after seeing the
video and the two have become
good friends. They often attend
sneaker shows together, and
Vella also asks Mangia for ad-
vice on his designs.
In the basement of his par-
ents’ house in Plainview, Vella
had the tools he needed —
airbrush, special paint and a
passion for “sneakerhead”
culture — to turn his 20 pairs
of sneakers into one-of-a-kind
fashion statements that reflect
both his creativity and his
sense of style. Now, he’s
turned his talent for customiz-
ing sneakers into a business.
“I want to be recognized as an
artist and known for giving a
quality custom shoe, something
one-of-a-kind to enjoy and wear,
rather than a generic shoe that
anyone can get,” said Vella, 19, a
graphic design major at Briar-
cliff College in Bethpage.
“He keeps getting better and
more comfortable with his
work,” Mangia said. “He did a
Teen finds
his passion
customizing
footwear
In his basement studio, Vella uses an airbrush and special paint, mixed with his passion for “sneakerhead” culture, on his custom work.
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An artAn art
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NEWSDAY,SUNDAY,JANUARY11,2015newsday.comN1LILIFE

3. Thomas Vella of Plainview
has created more than 30 pairs
of customized sneakers for his
customers. But before he start-
ed designing shoes for others,
he made them for himself and
has a couple of favorites.
Early on, he customized a
pair of Lebron Soldiers, giving
the shoes an intergalactic look
with lightning bolt designs.
Then there were his sneakers
that had a different kind of
out-of-this-world appeal. “I
have one pair that is all pink,
and then it looks like there’s a
blood spot on the shoe and it
has fingerprints,” he said. “The
idea was that it looks like an
alien attacked the shoe.”
pair with a Statue of Liberty
theme that’s my favorite.”
To make his fancy footwear,
Vella has to strip the sneakers’
factory paint with acetone, then
apply new paint with an air-
brush. Vella typically spends 10
to 30 hours on a pair, depending
on the complexity of the job.
Vella had been charging
$100 a pair to customize store-
bought sneakers, but he recent-
ly raised his rates to $200. At
$100, “I lose money on the
time I spend customizing a
shoe,” he said.
Vella began customizing
sneakers during his junior year
of high school. Since then, his
one-man enterprise, Big T
Customs, has attracted thou-
sands of followers on social
See COVER STORY on G6
ON THE COVER Vella,
withsneakers inhis
Plainviewworkshop,now
charges$200tocustomize
apair,and hasabig
followingonsocialmedia.
Thomas Vella has
made custom
sneakers for his
parents, Camille and
Frank. A graphic
design major at
Briarcliff College in
Bethpage, Vella, 19,
learned to customize
sneakers from
YouTube videos.
Ⅲ Video, more
photos at
newsday.com/lilife
Out-of-this world designs
HEATHERWALSH
Vella typically spends 10 to 30 hours on a pair of sneakers,
stripping the factory paint and applying a fresh design.
HEATHERWALSH
sneaks up on himsneaks up on him
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LILIFEN1newsday.comNEWSDAY,SUNDAY,JANUARY11,2015

4. coverstory
media, and word of his foot-
wear wizardry is spreading.
Among those Vella has met
through social media is Brad
Torf, a health care worker
from Chicago who customizes
shoes as a sideline.
“Because he’s a younger guy,
I’ve helped with some tips and
tricks. From what I’ve seen
online, he does really good
work,” Torf said. “I felt good
helping him out — he’s not
just some random kid out to
make a buck. He’s really seri-
ous about what he does.”
Vella gets most of his busi-
ness from his Instagram ac-
count. His most challenging
project to date was his first job
— creating a pair of shoes in
homage to the Call of Duty
video game. The sneakers,
which were covered with
depictions of laser beams, took
about six months to complete.
Vella caters largely to a male
demographic — teens and
20-somethings — that takes
sneakers very seriously. One
of his customers, Jordan Gold-
sher, 17, of Patchogue appreci-
ates Vella’s attention to detail.
Another customizer had
worked on a pair of Goldsher’s
Air Jordans, but he was disap-
pointed with the results and
approached Vella to salvage
the shoes. Vella stripped and
repainted them in the rapper
Drake’s signature black-and-
gold color scheme, and even
stenciled on Drake’s trademark
owl symbol.
“What the kid does with
shoes is just awesome,” Gold-
sher said of Vella. “I’m very
happy with what he did. It
just looks amazing.”
Vella’s parents — Camille,
53, and Frank, 50 — also have
benefited from having an
artisan in the house. He has
customized wallets for his
mom, a bookkeeper. For his
father, a Metropolitan Trans-
portation Authority employee
and loyal Yankees fan, Vella
commemorated Derek Jeter’s
retirement with a pair of Nike
Air Force 1s in Yankee blue,
complete with the interlock-
ing “NY” and the “RE2PECT”
logo from the shortstop’s 2013
season.
“He started crying,” Vella
said. “He loved Derek Jeter, and
he was so astonished that I can
make a one-of-a-kind shoe.”
Finding customers
The advent of social media
in the mid-2000s has been
instrumental in putting custom-
izers in touch with customers.
Instagram, in particular, in
which customizers can post
photos of their shoes, has been
a huge platform for business.
“Once it got opened up to
everyone who had a smart-
phone, it got big,” said Dan
Gamache, a full-time customiz-
er from Danbury, Connecticut,
whose clients have included
pro athletes Mariano Rivera,
LeBron James and Dwyane
Wade.
Vella also finds customers
by attending sneaker shows,
and was among the thousands
who thronged the Jacob K.
Javits Convention Center last
month for Sneaker Con New
York City. The event featured
a meet-and-greet with NBA
superstar Penny Hardaway
and an authentication station
where sneakerheads could
learn to distinguish knock-offs
from the real things.
Last Sunday, Vella attended
the Long Island Sneaker Show
in Rockville Centre, where he
was hired by an attendee to
customize a pair of Nike Em-
inem Air Max 90 running
shoes.
Vella now has a backlog of
seven customization jobs. He
only works on two pairs at a
time and uses the money he
earns to help pay for his auto
insurance, he said.
Celebrity specified
Sneaker culture took off in
the 1980s, with the soaring
popularity of rap music and
the high visibility of Michael
Jordan and the Chicago Bulls.
Customizing soon followed,
said Torf.
COVER STORY from G4
Vella, whose one-man business is called Big T Customs, caters largely to a male demographic of teens and 20-somethings that takes sneakers very seriously.
HEATHERWALSH
A teen’s foothold in art
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NEWSDAY,SUNDAY,JANUARY11,2015newsday.comN1LILIFE

5. “There are so many people
doing it of all different back-
grounds — there’s kids, there’s
adults, there’s artists, there’s
sneakerheads,” said Torf,
whose company Astrotorf
Retros and Customs has had
such high-profile clients as
Shane Victorino of the Boston
Red Sox. “In the last three or
four years, it’s just boomed.”
Customized sneakers now
adorn the feet of top athletes
and celebrities, including rap
mogul Jay Z, who wore a pair
of Brooklyn Zoos by PMK
Customs to the Nets’ first
home game at the Barclays
Center in 2012. PMK (Perfect-
ly Made Kicks) said its be-
spoke version of the original
Air Jordan was made of nine
kinds of animal skin, including
alligator, stingray and ele-
phant. A pair sold on eBay for
more than $20,000.
On at least one occasion,
the sneaker industry has ob-
jected to custom paint jobs. In
November, TMZ published a
memo from Nike warning pro
football players that customiz-
ing their cleats may void their
endorsement deals — especial-
ly if the trademark swoosh
isn’t clearly visible on TV.
“It’s like a tattoo on a shoe,”
said Mangia.
“Having a custom shoe
allows you to really stand out
from the crowd,” Torf said.
“Or it’s a way to express your-
self. . . . It’s wearable art. Some-
times people are uber-specific
about what they want — ‘I
want this color here,’ or they’ll
say ‘I want this theme —
“How the Grinch Stole Christ-
mas” ’ or the New York
Knicks or whatever. Some say,
‘Do whatever you want.’ ”
Vella, meanwhile, continues
to develop his brand, building
his Instagram following, net-
working with people in the
sneaker customization world
and striving for perfection
with each shoe he paints.
“One customization can get
your name out so far that it
can get to a celebrity —
record producers, rappers,
sports players, pretty much
everyone,” he said. “You
never know who might be
watching on Instagram.”
Top: For his
father, a big
Yankees fan,
Vella marked
Derek Jeter’s
retirement last
year with a
pair of Nike
Air Force 1s in
Yankees blue.
Bottom: Vella
shows a
before version
of a sneaker
on the right
and his
transformed,
painted
version on the
left.
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