Nike Air Yeezy 1 Zen Grey Sample & Custom

Another pair of Nike Air Yeezy 1s have come across the desk of Mr. Vick Almighty.

And while this Zen Grey Yeezy 1 was taken care of, the shoe is old enough that these are in desperate need of a proper restoration. 

But when Vick does something, he doesn’t do it halfway. Instead of just restoring these Nike Yeezy 1s, why don’t we make them a custom, too? 

Cleaning the adidas YEEZY 350 with Reshoevn8r Shoe Cleaner

In order to turn these into the Sample pair we’ve gotta dye this sockliner. For that, the sockliner needs to be given a good clean. And while we’re cleaning the sockliner, we might as well clean the rest of the shoe. All we’ll need to clean this pair is some water, our Cleaning Solution, and our Three Brush Pack. 

Vick used the Soft Bristle Brush from our Three Brush Pack to scrub the sockliner and uppers of the shoe. Then, instead of moving onto the Medium Bristle Brush Vick went ahead and skipped straight to the Stiff Bristle Brush to scrub the outsole. 

To complete the cleaning portion of this restoration, Vick scrubbed the insole with the soft bristle brush and cleaned the laces in our leftover solution and water mixture. 

Painting the Sockliner on the Nike Air Yeezy 1

Now we can tape and start to paint. Vick taped off everything but the sockliner, and used our Cricut machine to cut out some covers for the size tag and the eyelets of the shoe. 

To get the shade of orange just right, Vick mixed bright orange and fluorescent orange, and then used his airbrush to apply it nice and evenly across the entire sockliner and back of the tongue. 

With the orange laid down, we can move on to the midsoles and uppers. To prep these areas for paint, Vick rubbed them down with rubbing alcohol and cotton swabs. 

Fixing Damaged Leather 

After rubbing off the old paint, Vick noticed some rough spots in the leather. Vick used some leather filler to fill in a few small holes, and then took some sandpaper to it to smooth out the area. 

The tricky part about painting the leather back panel was getting the color just right. Vick ended up having to mix 9 (yes, 9) different colors in order to get the perfect shade. This man is dedicated!

After laying down the grey paint with an angular brush, we’re ready to lace this up and send them off to their owner!

Customs vs Samples

Vick did a great job on this one, and these Air Yeezy 1s came out looking JUST like the sample Vick was trying to emulate. 

But we want to hear from you, which pair do you like more? Personally, I’m rocking the custom…the orange on the sock liner just puts these into a different category. They look so much better. 

And as always, check out our Youtube for even more crazy customs with Vick.

Catch you guys next time!