The first time Cody Cameron painted a pair of shoes, it wasn’t creating a business that he had in mind. Off from work with a broken shoulder, he was simply looking for something to do with his time. But when he posted a photo of the finished shoes on Facebook, they became a huge hit among his social networking friends. That’s when he knew he had struck gold.

Now Cameron, along with his close friends Mac Gardiner and Tia Addison, have created the company Shed Designs as a platform to sell their custom designed shoes, hats, skateboards and longboards.

“After I broke my shoulder I felt useless and like I couldn’t do anything,” Cameron said. “So one day I decided I was going to draw on a pair of shoes. I went and got a pair in Vancouver and then I drew on them, put them on Facebook and they exploded. Everybody loved them and wanted them.”

Having been in business just shy of one year, together the group has sold dozens of uniquely painted products to friends, bands and local businesses.  They have also punctured the retail market, with products on the shelves of Ollie North Skate Shop in Cloverdale and many other stores currently in the works. “Shed Designs is about customization,” said Gardiner, co-founder of Shed Designs.

“We use our creative knowledge to suit our customer’s needs. They are at the core of our business.”
Once primary sketches are complete, many of Cameron’s pieces can take upwards of 10 hours to finish and perfect. He and his fellow artists Addison, and new member James Grimshaw, hand paint all of their projects with acrylic paint and coat them with a protective, waterproof spray.

From interactive images that change shape with the movement of shoe laces, to custom and professional logo designs, the young artist entrepreneurs are well on their way to creating a very large and diversified resume.
The creative process comes very naturally to them. Often inspired by their clients, ideas for designs can at times pop up quite sporadically.

“Sometimes when I’m walking around I suddenly just come up with things. Other times I have ideas that sit in my head for days on end and it’s not until I grab a piece of paper that they really come to life,” Cameron said. For Grimshaw, ideas come to him in very similar ways.

“It really varies,” he said. “Sometimes it’s feelings, the world around me or just inspiration.”
But the joy of painting and creating art is nothing compared to the ecstatic reactions on their clients faces, Addison said.

“I love to do art, but the best part is the reaction I get when I give people back their shoes with images that they are so passionate about,” she said.

Currently, the team is working on a series of custom longboard designs to be launched online on their Facebook page.  “The cool thing about designing longboards is that because riders don’t do a lot of grinding, the designs will last a really long time,” Addison said. “We can put a lot of time into them and know that they will last much longer than something like a skateboard.”  For more information and to purchase products from Shed Designs, visit www.facebook.com/sheddesigns. Words by Miranda Gathercole.