Obsession: The Storytelling Sneaker

Name: Obsession: The Storytelling Sneaker
Brand: Boyarde
Price: 459.0 USD
Availability: InStock

$459.00

Obsession: The Storytelling Sneaker

Product Details

I’m a natural-born storyteller.

My art explores the space where luxury, identity, and pop culture collide. Fourteen years ago, I pioneered the luxury wearable art movement by painting on Hermès Birkins and Kellys, taking art off the gallery wall and into people’s hands. Sneakers are the ultimate walking canvas, carrying culture, conversation, and commentary wherever they go.

In this project, I wanted to bring my storytelling into the world of urban sneaker culture, merging the heritage of self-expression born on the streets with my own experience of luxury wearable art. It’s a collision between rebellion and refinement, where craftsmanship meets cultural commentary.

My pair, one male, one female, forms an artistic dialogue between two icons: Grace Jones and Jean-Michel Basquiat, both of whom shattered norms and refused to conform. Each represents power, individuality, and creative rebellion: the energy of self-expression that thrives outside the system.

Having worked across the intersection of art and luxury fashion for over fourteen years, my sneakers reflect my fascination with modern-day obsession: with celebrity, branding, and the endless performance of identity online. The words \'Cult\',\'Obsession\' and \'Power\' appear in the iconic red backdrop and \'Futura\' font, a deliberate nod to Barbara Kruger’s feminist visual language, later echoed and “viralised” by brands like Supreme. Torn and layered, they reveal how culture simultaneously idolises and consumes its icons.

Figures such as the Stormtrooper, KAWS Companion, Snow White, and Koons Balloon Dog are instantly recognisable even from behind, a comment on how deeply pop culture is imprinted in our collective consciousness. Depicted with smart phones raised, they become contemporary spectators, mirroring how we now experience life through the addictive glow of our screens.

Technically, my process bridges fine-art precision and wearability. Having painted across a multitude of surfaces, from soft Chanel lambskin to veiny Hermès Togo leather, I ensure each artwork works in harmony with its canvas. On these sneakers, the story flows across panels like the pages in a book: the grey textured suede now contrasting to the flat satin kaleidoscope of painted colours; the icons hands physically “peek” over the participating midsole acting as a ledge; vivid laces echo the artwork’s pop palette.

As Jones and Basquiat stare back with those unmistakable gazes, the power dynamic shifts, from viewer to subject.

These are more than sneakers. They’re walking social commentary, inviting us to question our values, how we connect, and where admiration ends and obsession begins. This is \'Obsession\': the Storytelling sneaker.

Read the full story of the artwork