How To Draw On Air Force Ones

Making your own custom Nike Air Force 1's is easy! Just follow these steps to make your own unique sneakers. I'll name all the products I have used to make my own 90s style Nike Air Force 1's.

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Getting started making your own Custom Nike Air Force 1

Fresh Nike Air Force 1's in the box — A pair of fresh Nike Air Force 1's

First thing you'll need when making your own custom Nike Air Force 1's is a pair of Nike Air Force 1's of course! But that kind of makes sense, right?

Next you'll need to do is think about the design you want to make on your shoes. What colors will you need? Perhaps you want to get some colorful laces to suit your fresh design?

Once you have an idea about your design and you've got all the products you need, you can get started with customizing your sneakers. The very first thing you need to do is clean your sneakers before applying any paint.

custom nike air force 1 cleaning — Clean your shoes first!

To do this I used Angelus Leather Preparer and Deglazer and a microfiber cloth. It's important to take your time cleaning and preparing the sneakers, it will improve the end result and make sure the paint will stick. Don't use to much force though, just gently rub your Nike Air Force 1's with circular motions.

Paint your custom Nike Air Force 1

Angelus leather paint on Nike Air Force 1 — Applying the first stroke of paint

Once your sneakers are all clean and prepared, you can get started with the paint! I used an Angelus Paint brush set to apply the paint. You can find an overview of all the colors of paint I used at the bottom of this post. When painting, make sure you apply thin layers. It's better to apply multiple thin layers than one thick layer, it will make your end result look that much better!

I applied Violet paint to the side of the shoe and applied the color South Beach to the top of the nose. The South Beach looked good after two or three layers, but the Violet needed 4 or 5 layers of paint. So be patient when making your Custom Nike Air Force 1's 🙂

To the Nike Swoosh I applied Angelus Yellow leather paint. This one also already started looking great after just 2 layers.

Around the nose of the shoe I applied Angelus Black leather paint. You need to be careful with the black though, you don't want to mess it up! I used the smallest brush to work around the edges.

Black leather paint on Custom Nike Air Force 1 — The first stroke of black

Adding a design

custom nike air force 1 with triangles — the first triangle is here!

Once I had multiple layers painted on the sneakers, it was time to add a design to the shoe. I wanted to add a little nineties vibe to the shoes, not just with the colors I had chosen, but also with a nice pattern. It sure was scary to get started with the pattern though! What if I would mess it up? You need a steady hand to make a pattern and use a small brush. Luckily this pattern is quite easy to nail, I'm sure you can do it too 🙂

nineties pattern on custom Nike Air Force 1

I painted the little triangles using the South Beach Angelus paint and made the little zig zags using Magenta Angelus paint. To make them clearly visible, I applied two layers of paint. That way I could also make some slight adjustments and fix some wobbly lines. Finally I also painted the little stroke at the back of the shoe with the Magenta paint, to give it a little extra Magenta touch.

The final touch

Finally, to finish the custom Nike Air Force 1's, you need to apply a protective coat. It is not necessary, but it will ensure your shoes will look colorful and crisp for a longer period of time. To protect my own shoes, I used the Angelus Acrylic Finisher no. 600.

Of course the shoes also need a pair of laces! I decided to add some bright pink laces to this design to add to that nineties vibe. What do you think? You can check the video of the process down below, or check out all the products that you can use to make your own Custom Nike Air Force 1's.