SHOE-perstar: The man behind Carolina’s Custom Kicks
CHARLOTTE (CHARLOTTE SPORTS LIVE) — It’s a shoe. That’s all it is right?
To some, sure. But not Michael Griffin
“Sneakers tell you the story of your life,” he explains.
This pair that hangs on a power line off West Boulevard in Uptown has got quite the tale. It’s a real rags to riches story, how one Charlotte man, literally started from the bottom to become a sneaker king.
“My whole thing was, other people didn’t believe in me so why should I believe in myself,” Griffin recalls thinking.
It was 2020 and life had hit the then 31-year-old hard. He was living with his dad and not sure of his purpose. Then one day he began thinking of what he was passionate about, and it came back to shoes.
“It’s a true expression of who you are,” he says.
But what happens when just wearing a pair of Nikes just isn’t good enough? Griffin wanted to do something more. He wanted to make the shoe pop.
“Being able to do custom, you can make something that is truly you,” he says.
A great idea, in theory, if he had the art materials and an actual art background. Two things Griffin severely lacked. What he did have however was a stimulus check and a woman who believed in him.
“I know like he is very determined,” said his wife Emily Parks. “If he says he is going to make something happen, he always makes it happen. No matter what.”
And so the two set out to make the impossible happen. Money was tough to come but that didn’t stop Griffin from becoming a master of his craft.
“It not going to happen overnight,” he remembers thinking. “I just got it in my mind that this is something I wanted.”
Before long, Griffin got pretty good. However, he still needed a break. Then one day just prior to the start of the 2022 season, an opportunity came calling.
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“I got in front of (Panthers linebacker) Brian Burns and got his shoe size,” he recalls. “That truly is what changed our life. It worked.”
Burns liked what he saw. He became a client. Soon a lot of his teammates did too.
Guys like Laviska Shenault Jr, Derrick Brown, Xavier Woods, and Chuba Hubbard barely scratch the surface of the guys he works with. Griffin estimates he does about whoever is on the team but he says he’s not running low on ideas.
The shoes he did for Adam Thielen is proof: A furry Grinch-themed pair, complete with TVs that play clips from the movie.
Crazy?
“It depends on who you ask,” says Parks. “I personally am like, ‘how cool!’’
They’re definitely unique. But then ago so is that same pair Griffin tossed up on the power line the day he and his wife opened their custom shoe store last summer.
“We are chasing a dream,” he smiles, the proud owner of Shoedio. “We are working hard. That is what it comes down to.”
It’s quite a story and it’s only just getting started.
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