Dime is the premier basketball magazine, covering the NBA, NCAA, High School, Playground and International basketball - as well as sneakers, fashion and music.
Issue link: http://dimemagazine.epubxp.com/i/109153
BUSINESS OF CUSTOM KICKS THE ART Sean Sweeney Dan Gamache WORDS. PHOTOS. Mache Custom Kicks A few years ago, Dan ���Mache��� Gamache tried to get a job with Dime Magazine. Now he���s being featured in the magazine. Not bad for the creator of Mache Custom Kicks, widely regarded as one of the best custom sneaker designers in the industry. Mache has painted shoes for everyone from Rasheed Wallace to GZA to Kobe Bryant to Game, and he���s reached a point where LeBron James is fawning over his talent on Twitter. The demand for Mache���s skill is so strong ��� he has over 50,000 followers on Instagram ��� that even Wilson Chandler, a forward for the Denver Nuggets, had to wait three months to get his kicks painted. Mache compares his costumers to those of a great tattoo artist: once they see what you can do, they won���t go anywhere else. The wait time is worth it in the end. ���They understand it,��� he says. ���They respect it.��� Sometimes he might do 15 pairs in a week. It could also be only two or three. It all depends on the scheduling and his artistic vision. Mache won���t go through the motions if he isn���t inspired. A middling product is a red mark against his name, and the 33-year-old wants to keep the Mache Custom Kicks brand impeccable. ���Bad news always spreads faster than good news,��� he says. Mache is so busy that he even hired his girlfriend full-time. She takes care of the bills and emails so that Mache is free to paint shoes and hit up shows to smile and wave. 24 Yet it wasn���t always like this for the St. Rose (Albany, N.Y.) graduate. He started in the business just as you might���ve guessed: in his mom���s basement, screwing around with some beat-up Air Max 90s. Soon, he was rocking his custom kicks into neighborhood barbershops. Soon, word spread. By 2004, with publications like Sole Collector connecting more people through sneakers, Mache found others like himself through the Internet. The underground custom community was ���tight knit��� and he says he learned from what they were doing.