THE SHOE SURGEON
WHO IS THE SHOE SURGEON
Dominic Chambrone, AKA The Shoe Surgeon, is the humble self-taught cobbler who managed to turn his obsession for sneakers into a stellar career and is responsible for some of the most genius, in-demand customs of all time. The celebrated sneaker virtuoso deconstructs shoes, takes them apart and rebuilds them with premium materials (and sometimes even a better fit), along with building samples and prototypes from scratch.
Chambrone started out in high school customizing a pair of all-white Air Force 1 Mids to camouflage. The props he got from his peers spurred him on to continue, moving him onto sewing machines and working with leathers, learning the ins and out of shoe repair trade.
From pro-bono paint jobs, via a pair of all-white Vans chukkas that he customized with laser-etched Tandy leather for Charlotte’s Niche Market, he was soon making shoes for the likes of Will.I.Am, Justin Bieber, NBA superstar LeBron James, DJ Khaled and Drake, with a certain python Air Jordan going viral. He also created the “Misplaced Checks,” a premium Nike Air Force 1 with multiple Swooshes in different material together with John Geiger, and lent his magic to a string of fire YEEZY Boost.
Today he is responsible for a mind-boggling array of desirable drops and high-profile collaborations, with custom sneakers clocking in anything from $3000 – $30,000 and let’s not forget the stunning Nike LeBron 15 sneakers dressed in 24 karat gold and diamonds. They were valued at $100,000, and was gifted to LeBron by The Shoe Surgeon in 2018 sending the sneakerati and fans across the globe into a frenzy.
Having honed his craft for 18 years to date Chambrone is determined to inspire others, share his knowledge of and push the craft forward. He started teaching, holding sneaker classes in New York, to finally launch the Shoe Surgeon Shoe School and creative collective Surgeon Studios in Los Angeles. With classes planned in Paris and New York Learn in autumn 2019 you can learn how to hand-make custom kicks too.
