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From mass-produced to one-of-a-kind: Freehand Revenue creates artworks out of sneakers

January 1, 2022

Like most sneakerheads, Gary Lockwood, the Los Angeles-based artist behind the deal with, Freehand Revenue, sees traditional kicks just like the Jordan 1s as sacred. First launched by Nike in 1984, solely to be banned — and martyred — by the NBA for being too colourful, these sneakers are deemed by many because the granddaddy of modern-day sneakers. However, worship is available in many types, which explains why, in 2010, Lockwood dedicated an act that will stun most footwear fans: He lower the sneakers up and scavenged them for components. What began as an experiment 9 years in the past is now Lockwood’s sigil: he’s the man who transforms the tradition’s most cherished sneakers into gasoline masks so colourful, they’d make a peacock blush. Name his work sculpture; name it blended media. No matter you name it, by remixing the position sneakers play in tradition over the previous ten years, he’s had the chance to create artwork for the likes of Wu Tang’s Methodology Man, Kevin Durant, and the rapper/singer-songwriter, Everlast.

Boar masks, created from two pairs of Travis Scott Jordan 1s.

The gasoline masks is a crucial image in graffiti tradition, defending road artists from the chemical substances in spray paint. Lockwood’s masks are an homage to his roots as a graffiti artist, a ability he claims he by no means mastered (“My blackbook work was at all times higher than my can management”): “I didn’t know some other writers, so I didn’t have anyone to indicate me the ropes. It was one thing that I simply went out and did by myself, and it wasn’t essentially to get observed…for me, it was participation — contemplating that because the fifth factor of hip-hop. I can’t rap, so, I’m an artist…I need to make artwork that different hip-hop heads will respect.” Lockwood stashed away his spray cans and, as an alternative, received a bachelor’s diploma in high quality arts from the Corcoran Faculty of the Arts and Design in Washington D.C. Not a giant fan of artwork faculty — “They sort of did every part they might to persuade me to not make the work that I used to be captivated with” — and dying to precise his personal inventive concepts, Lockwood set a purpose for himself: each day in 2010, he’d create a masks and publish the outcomes on his weblog.
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Ninja masks, created from a few Yeezy 350s.

At first, his masks solely manifested in sketches and drawings. However inspiration struck when he caught his buddy’s mother tossing out a Gucci purse, which later grew to become the prototype that began all of it: “I used to be experimenting with a whole lot of completely different supplies and (was) on the lookout for one thing that meant one thing to me — I had painted most of my life and I wasn’t loopy about paint,” says Lockwood. “I do know some painters…like they drool over it, and I didn’t have that very same reference to it. So I assumed, “what valuable materials may I take advantage of to make my artwork?” Not lengthy after, Lockwood realized that the proper materials for his masks was, actually, proper below his nostril. His first sneaker masks had been made out of pedestrian wears, like some black Chuck Taylors and a pair of SB blazers he purchased for $20 at a Nike outlet. However in 2011, when he carved a Stormtrooper masks out of two pairs of Adidas Tremendous Skate Mids and auctioned them on eBay, that’s when the sneaker neighborhood went nuts. Playboy and a slew of footwear blogs picked up the story, and when he purchased an iPhone to doc his masks on Instagram, it didn’t take lengthy for manufacturers to take discover. “Now, there are a whole lot of different creatives who deconstruct streetwear or sneakers to no matter they do. And it appears to be extra acceptable,” says Lockwood who’s made masks for manufacturers like Nike, Adidas, and Reebok. “There’s nonetheless some holdout of us which can be like, ‘Oh, that’s a waste of sneakers.’ However I feel that holdout crowd truly provides validity to the work. A lot of what I do is about that sacrifice, and if you happen to can’t sacrifice one thing that’s mass-produced for one thing one-of-a-kind — you’re already lacking the purpose.”
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Gasoline masks carved out of Nike Air Max 1s and Air Max 90s.

Whereas he’s being celebrated inside and out of doors sneaker tradition — he’s featured in Complicated, Vice, and Hypebeast — the street to monetizing his work has been filled with ups and downs. From a change within the enterprise mannequin for sneaker blogs, which had been offering invaluable visitors to his on-line retailer, to an ever-shifting Instagram algorithm that was making it troublesome to succeed in his followers, Lockwood has discovered to adapt to maintain up with a digital panorama that’s consistently altering: “With the algorithms that they put in place for Instagram, it’s like, of us aren’t even seeing (my work),” says Lockwood. “So you already know…you’ll be able to have the viewers, however until you’re paying for these adverts, you’re not truly reaching your viewers. And so, the significance of with the ability to monetize that viewers, I feel that’s what actually drew me to Patreon. For years, I used to be like, man — if I may simply work out easy methods to get $1 from each one in all my followers (per) yr, I might be alright.”