From the workshop to Lab
In this cadremith for passionate, creative sneakers heads, founded by Jase Cooper and Thomas Rowe in 2021, Salvatore Coppola learned from the PIKE how sneakers are handmade. At the same time, he was able to familiarize himself with methods of personalization as well as techniques for redesigning and recycling the sneakers in order to give them a personal touch and breathe new life into them.
A year after returning from London to his voting hometown Barcelona, he opened his own lab on a side street in the trendy district of Gràcia: the Barcelona Sneaker Academy. Salvatore was inspired by the thought of addressing the most broad audience with his workshops and giving these methods for a reinterpretation of their worn shoes. So he started a workshop offer in which the participants bring their own, mostly worn sneakers and give them new shine under his guidance and redesign them according to their taste. Participation does not require any previous knowledge to let your imagination and creativity run free. As a first step, the participants must create and draw the aesthetic concept for the new sneaker under Salvatores. Then the shoes are overtaken, cleaned and the original impregnation is removed to prepare it for the implementation of the new look. Acrylic paints for leather and textile are used for redesign. In addition, materials and fabrics from recycled remains in different feels, small accessories such as charms that are attached, hooked or threaded, as well as creative shoelaces or cords.
