Keia Kodama finds her niche as a custom sneaker artist and influencer
Multidisciplinary artist and influencer Keia Kodama recently turned 46 years old, but she still caters to her inner child.
Whether she’s customizing shoes or creating an art installation, Kodama says she incorporates her experience as a 1980s kid and ’90s teenager.
Whether she’s customizing shoes or creating an art installation, Kodama says she incorporates her experience as a 1980s kid and ’90s teenager.
“My logic of life is everything I do is for the 5, 10, 15-year-old me,” Kodama says. “About [how I] wanted to see these things and didn’t see them.”
Kodama moved to Sacramento from Los Angeles at age seven and has lived here since. Her passion for customizing shoes goes back to when she was in elementary school, drawing on her shoes, changing the laces, bleeding them out and adding materials. Today, she’s customized shoes for clients including Nike, the video game Fortnite and a production company tied to LeBron James.
But her favorite shoes she has customized so far weren’t part of a brand project. Kodama created Hair Force 1s, customized Nike Air Force 1s, as a homage to Black women and their hair experiences.
She styled hair as a side hustle for years, but stopped during the COVID-19 pandemic. In fall 2021, she treated the shoe as if she was doing a quick weave hairstyle on a client and used glue and clippers. Kodama posted the design on social media, drawing the attention of outlets including Essence and Hypebae.
“I think the Hair Force 1 was me showing everybody that when you customize a sneaker, it doesn’t have to just be paint,” Kodama says. “It could be something else; the sky’s the limit. It was also stepping out of that comfort zone of this culture of a world being so set in a certain way and then doing something so different.”
She didn’t formally study art in school, but has a background in fashion and design. Kodama was first invited to be part of a fashion show in the early 2000s, after people kept asking her who made her clothes and telling her she should be a designer.
Kodama realized she liked styling more than making clothes and eventually pivoted to marketing and display visuals. For about 16 years, Kodama worked in visual production, designing window displays and mannequins such as inside shopping malls. She decided to do art and influencing full time about four years ago.
But Kodama says she felt her official introduction as an installation artist versus a fashion designer took place in 2022. Kodama along with more than 30 other artists transformed the former PAC SAT satellite building located in downtown Sacramento into a temporary immersive exhibit called Coordinates: Ice Pac.
She says taking her experience working for retailers and implementing her own creativity was the perfect marriage.
Kodama adds she is very conscious of the fact that not a lot of people look like her in the niche of collectible custom sneakers. Many sneaker artists live in the United Kingdom, but she has been able to create a community supportive of her work.
To those looking to get into art, Kodama encourages people to go to school or work for about five to 10 years. She recommends gaining the knowledge you need from companies and then applying it to yourself.
She says Sacramento’s art scene has come a long way since she moved here as a child. Kodama also says she would rather be a big fish in a small pond than a small fish in a big pond.
“If I can’t make it here, then how would I know how well I would do anywhere else?” Kodama says. “So, let’s see what we can do here and then we can take our act on the road.”
Kodama moved to Sacramento from Los Angeles at age seven and has lived here since. Her passion for customizing shoes goes back to when she was in elementary school, drawing on her shoes, changing the laces, bleeding them out and adding materials. Today, she’s customized shoes for clients including Nike, the video game Fortnite and a production company tied to LeBron James.
But her favorite shoes she has customized so far weren’t part of a brand project. Kodama created Hair Force 1s, customized Nike Air Force 1s, as a homage to Black women and their hair experiences.
She styled hair as a side hustle for years, but stopped during the COVID-19 pandemic. In fall 2021, she treated the shoe as if she was doing a quick weave hairstyle on a client and used glue and clippers. Kodama posted the design on social media, drawing the attention of outlets including Essence and Hypebae.
“I think the Hair Force 1 was me showing everybody that when you customize a sneaker, it doesn’t have to just be paint,” Kodama says. “It could be something else; the sky’s the limit. It was also stepping out of that comfort zone of this culture of a world being so set in a certain way and then doing something so different.”
She didn’t formally study art in school, but has a background in fashion and design. Kodama was first invited to be part of a fashion show in the early 2000s, after people kept asking her who made her clothes and telling her she should be a designer.
Kodama realized she liked styling more than making clothes and eventually pivoted to marketing and display visuals. For about 16 years, Kodama worked in visual production, designing window displays and mannequins such as inside shopping malls. She decided to do art and influencing full time about four years ago.
But Kodama says she felt her official introduction as an installation artist versus a fashion designer took place in 2022. Kodama along with more than 30 other artists transformed the former PAC SAT satellite building located in downtown Sacramento into a temporary immersive exhibit called Coordinates: Ice Pac.
She says taking her experience working for retailers and implementing her own creativity was the perfect marriage.
Kodama adds she is very conscious of the fact that not a lot of people look like her in the niche of collectible custom sneakers. Many sneaker artists live in the United Kingdom, but she has been able to create a community supportive of her work.
To those looking to get into art, Kodama encourages people to go to school or work for about five to 10 years. She recommends gaining the knowledge you need from companies and then applying it to yourself.
She says Sacramento’s art scene has come a long way since she moved here as a child. Kodama also says she would rather be a big fish in a small pond than a small fish in a big pond.
“If I can’t make it here, then how would I know how well I would do anywhere else?” Kodama says. “So, let’s see what we can do here and then we can take our act on the road.”