Young Motswana�s love for art lands him in customising shoes
Nnasaretha Kgamanyane | Thursday December 22, 2016 11:55
Customised shoes are ideal for fashion gurus who want to look different from other people with their unique pair of canvas, boots, sneakers and other types of shoes. This fashion trend has been around for quite some time but has not been popular in the country.
In an interview with Showbiz, Boitumelo said he started liking art at a very tender age. He said he started doing art at Bonnington Junior Secondary School and later did it as an extra class at Naledi Senior Secondary School.
“When I completed my BGCSE I did not want to get a job. I decided to see which of my talents I could make a living from. I have always known about customised shoes and so I opted to venture into that art before I could proceed to tertiary school,” he said.
Boitumelo said he tried the art on his shoes and he was happy with the results. He added that he then advertised his shoes on social media where he got positive feedback and a number of customers, which is when Amateki Culture was born.
“I realised that this app is not popular in Botswana. I bought equipment in 2015 and started doing my shoes where many people had shown a great interest in my work,” he said.
Boitumelo said even though he encourages his customers to come up with their ideal designs, he examines the shoe to see if the design can suit that shoe or not. He added that if the design details were not suitable for the shoe, he will make some suggestion and together with the customer can reach an agreement on the kind of design they can go with.
The young lad from Nkange customises a variety of footwear, raging from boots, vans, timberland, sneakers and other canvas shoes, new or old. He said in most cases he advises his customers to bring old shoes for customising so that they can fall in love with them all over again.
“Sometimes a person can buy shoes then decide to spice them up with some designs of their choice. Some can love some shoes but later realise that they do not like their colour and that is where I come in. I can make a customer fall in love with those shoes all over again,” he said.
Boitumelo said even though he does a variety of designs varying from galaxy, galaxy emoji, he also did dream catch (a tattoo like design), cartoons and graffiti. He however, emphasised that most of his customers liked the galaxy design the most. He explained that he takes two or more days to customize the shoes depending on the details of its designs.
He also pointed out that at first he used to charge his customers looking at the shoe but had decided to start charging looking at the details of the design. He said his charges range from P150 to P250. He further explained that some designs could be costly to up to P350 depending on the details of the design and the time it will take to customise such shoes.
“What is good about this art is that when the shoe is old you can make it attractive again. You can also change the design anytime your heart desires,” he said.
Boitumelo uses acrylic paints and fabric paints to customise shoes. He explained that even though those paints were permanent, they can be removed when making a new design. He is currently working from home in Mmopane.
That young Limkokwing University of Creative University student said he was able to make pocket money through some money he got from his work.
The Events Management student added that next year he will be working on cocktail porridge and events management projects under Art Handz. He added that potential customers interested in his work can his Facebook page for more details.