An Accidental Masterpiece

Meet fifteen-year-old “custom sneaker designer” Emeka Wajed.
Soon to turn sixteen in November, Emeka has been designing sneakers since 2013 when he was only thirteen years old.
He resides in Buffalo, New York with his parents Alexa and Edreys and his older brother. He is currently an incoming sophomore in high school and is involved in three sports: soccer, basketball, and track where he runs the 800 efficiently. Emeka’s future dream is to be able to attend college on a sports scholarship.
When asked how his sneaker design business came to be, he responded “My parents are artists, so it came to me naturally.
Even though I had no prior art experience, I would look at the work of other sneaker artists who were an inspiration to me and then take old, beat up sneakers, and with no mock-up, designs would just come to me.
I began designing old sneakers because I could not afford to purchase new ones.
Eventually, I began painting with color on new shoes and started posting my designs on IG (Instagram). I could just look at shoe colors and know immediately what the design would be.” He stated that his target consumers are a mixture of his parent’s friends, IG and other people he knows.
Emeka shared how he hopes to one day serve as an inspiration for other young people. His future goals include, expanding his online presence, as well as having
his own clothing line and brick and mortar art studio. He looks forward to the freedom of being able to do his art his own way!
He attributes much of his success to his parents who help him with things like pricing, his commissions, and management. He shared that they completely support
him and his art.
His short-term goal is to finish high school and attend college. He would love to attend Canisius college locally, but would also consider Yale, Chicago, and Brooklyn as
possibly choices. He plans to continue in Studio arts with Sports as his core. In the mean- time, he continues to pursue his art and hopes to one day connect with Puma (he first started painting with them) as a possible sponsor, also Nike and other sports influencers.
Emeka’s reply to the question “where do you see yourself in the next five years” was “I will be twenty-one, in college, not drinking, making more money and living comfortable”.
IG @madebymek_