Sneakerphile x adidas Forum Mid RS Lite “Boba Fett”

• MODEL: ADIDAS FORUM MID RS LITE
• CUSTOMIZED BY: SNEAKERPHILE
• MADE IN: UNITED KINGDOM
• MADE ON: --/12

English shell-toe artisan known online as Sneakerphile rises from the multi-colored airbrush dust to show that he’s not only still in the game but spraying his style across new silhouettes as well.

This time around Sneakerphile combines his mutual love of adidas and the Star Wars franchise by taking a second look at the Boba Fett jacket released in 2010. See, this jacket was immaculate, however the ZX’s that went alongside it were debatable. Whether or not you liked them, there is one critical detail that couldn’t be ignored; they didn’t match the jacket by any means! For this reason – and out of pure passion for pushing his art further to a new frontier by covering a larger landscape – ‘Phile busted out the paints, mixed up the correct colors, and got to work on these Forum Mid RS Lite Boba Fett’s.

And Sneakerphile’s application is superb, spraying not three nor four but a total of five color hues to the upper body, tongue, and midsole of the Forum. For his first high top silhouette he’s certainly tackled the task of covering all the layers with precision. Highlighted details include the semi-shiny silver grey and the perfectly-mixed mint and burgundy for matching the jacket’s original colors.

The tongue itself must have been the most challenging, spraying it evenly despite its complex surface texture and the Dillinger web detailing looks as though it was probably very painstaking. Even the ankle strap’s Velcro tech has been airbrushed! ‘Phile certainly leaves no layer untouched. Luckily enough, once completed, he shared his work with us, even sitting down for a spell in the eatmoreshoes lunar cafe to chop it up over a Corellian rum and tell us how the Forum had treated him.

So ‘Phile, is this the first time you’ve done work on a non-shell-toe?

I did a pair of Cincinnati Bengals Stan Smiths years ago (about the fourth pair of customs I ever did) but other than those I have only ever worked on Supes. I have wanted to do a pair of high tops for a while now, and this is my first attempt.

How did you find the work, compared to painting the legendary shell-toe?

It was quite the challenge working on these. To date, I have done about twenty three or twenty four pairs of customs, and only one has been a non-Supe. When painting Supes, I only have to deal with a few panels (side walls, stripes, and heel tab) so I’m only really looking at two or three “layers”. With these Forums though, I was suddenly confronted with multiple layers that were all closely grouped together. I’ll be honest, it was quite daunting at first, trying to work out how many colours to use and where to put them.

That’s certainly understandable… more real estate doesn’t necessarily mean easier livin’! Did you have to change your process in anyway?

Naw, I stuck to the usual process with these. The main difference was that there was a whole hell of a lot more masking and de-masking involved. As I say, there are a lot of layers on this shoe!

Modeled after the Boba Fett jacket, can you explain any design decisions you made for the sneakers?

My first couple of ideas regarding the colourway were along the lines of copying the jacket as exactly as I could. But after a lot of thought, I decided that the obvious choices would not necessarily be the best ones. I wanted to use the same colours, but not in the same quantity (if you look at the jacket, you can see that the predominant colour is the pale green), so after a couple of returns to the drawing board I came up with the final draft. They may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I’m pleased with how they came out. Part of the problem with customizing is that you can’t tell what they’re gonna look like until the final piece of masking tape has been removed, so with these it was a long wait!

As for Star Wars, you must be a fan yourself?

Huge fan. And by that, I mean (in my opinion) there are only three Star Wars movies! Those two-hour-long toy commercials that Lucas vomited up a few years ago do not exist as far as I’m concerned.

Haha, ok, we hear that ‘Phile! So, what’s your favorite character?

I gave it some thought, and I would have to say it’s the boss of the Imperial gunner on the Star Destroyer at the beginning of A New Hope. The gunner was just about the blow up the escape pod with R2D2 and C3PO in it, when his boss says not to bother because there are no life signs. As a result, the droids escape and the whole trilogy begins. If he’d given the order to blow up the pod, guess what… no Star Wars! Anyway, I think that uses up all of my geek points for the rest of the year!

Good answer! As far as trilogies go, think you’d do further Star Wars customs in the future?

I would definitely consider it, as there are lots of possibilities (and quite a few of the official releases were not the droids I was looking for). As usual, with any custom job, I always think about it carefully before committing.

What about further non-shell-toe work, will you be expanding the range of silhouettes you paint?

I hope that I get to work on some more high tops in the future, but it obviously depends on what the customers want. But personally, my first choice will always be Supes.

We’re sure after showcasing this type of dedication you’ll have ‘heads lining up like droids at your doorstep to get their iron boots re-glazed any day now ‘Phile. Thanks so much for landing down with us, we look forward to seeing what you drop in the near future! And as for your fans, if anyone wants to get in touch with Sneakerphile for a custom please contact him via email.

written by Dylan Cromwell

photography by errol