Art evolves. Looking back at my Stranger Things customs, I can see my own growth in three different versions of the same idea.

It started with the Upside Down Blazers. Then came the original AF-11 with a portal built into the side. By 2025, I was telling the story through layers of silhouette art inside the Swoosh.

Each version gave me something to bring into the next.

The Upside Down Blazers

Nike’s Stranger Things collaboration already had a concept I loved: a canvas upper that could tear away to reveal another layer underneath.

I wanted to take it further.

People ordered the shoes and shipped them to my workshop. I distressed the canvas and used a material safe for fabric to recreate the veins around the portal to the Upside Down.

Looking back, people were paying me to destroy their shoes. That sounds crazy until you understand what they saw in the work. They respected the art and trusted me with the transformation.

The original AF-11

Around 2022 or early 2023, that idea moved onto an Air Force 1. I called it the AF-11, a play on AF1 and Eleven.

I removed the Swoosh and created a portal using epoxy and Tulip puff paint. Raised veins spread across the shoe. An engraved 11 on the side and “Friends Don’t Lie” on the tag brought more of the show into the details.

There was a lot going on. That was where I was creatively at the time. I wanted to explore every part of the shoe.

The AF-11 became one of my top sellers in 2023 and 2024, and that momentum carried into 2025.

A story inside the Swoosh

In 2025, I redesigned it.

I’ve always loved silhouette art. As I developed the layered construction used in Good Guys, Myers, and Ghostface, I wanted to see how much of a story I could fit inside that space.

Five layers of acrylic gave the Swoosh depth. One scene showed the kids riding their bikes with the Mind Flayer looming above. The other showed Will running from the Demogorgon in the Upside Down.

The red-and-black split represented those two worlds.

That same interest in layered storytelling also found its way into my Nightmare Before Christmas and snow globe customs. One experiment kept opening up another possibility.

Learning where the detail belongs

In my earlier work, the detail was everywhere. Over time, I’ve learned to simplify and concentrate it in certain areas.

The original portal showed what I was exploring then. The layered Swoosh showed what I could do with that experience later.

I still want people to look closer. I’m just learning where to give their eyes a place to land.