A few years back, UK footwear company Oliver Sweeney thought it’d be cool to offer bespoke tattoo designs on top of their leather products, so they teamed up with Henry Hate – a rockstar tattoo artist from London. At first it started out as a limited edition type of thing, but then demand for custom inked leather never seemed to slow down. In 2012, they opened up a shoe tattoo pop-up shop in Selfridges, and business has been booming ever since.
And the ink isn’t just some cheap gimmick to help them peddle cheap kicks either. Oliver Sweeney has been making footwear for 25 years, and the company knows how to make a damn fine shoe. The entire business was founded around the company’s patented Anatomical Last design – a painstakingly-researched insole design that’s sculpted to give support to the arch, the instep points, and the big toe. A gentle twist through its length simulates the natural shape of the foot, and also helps reduce rolling to the outside of the foot as well.
Snagging yourself a pair is pretty straightforward – just hit up the Oliver Sweeney website, and browse through their selection of high-quality hand-crafted leather goods until you find something you can’t live without. Once you’ve selected a product, the site will give you the option to submit any design you’d like to have emblazoned on the hide.
Hit up their site for further details.
