As soccer grows in the US, so does the artistic culture around it—and just like other sports have sneaker culture, soccer boots are increasingly getting their day. Brands are putting out a constant stream of new colorways in their boots, limited-edition releases are on the rise, and more and more players are sporting their own custom creations.
As further evidence of this, adidas recently commissioned the most in-demand sneaker customizer, the Shoe Surgeon, to customize boots for Gyasi Zardes, James Rodriguez and Paul Pogba. You may have seen his work already on Instagram, where he uploads his work on @theshoesurgeon. To find out what goes into perfecting boots for the world’s elite soccer players, we sat down with the Surgeon (real name: Dominic Chambrone) in his downtown Los Angeles studio.
Photo by Ben Hooper
MLSsoccer.com: How’d you get started?
Dominic Chambrone: I started customizing shoes back in high school. I would somehow get Jordans early and wear them to Foot Locker and people would go crazy. Then all my friends would get them and we would all have the same shoes, which I thought was stupid.
So I picked up an airbrush one day and airbrushed my shoes. When I went to school the next day with them the reaction was crazy. That made me feel good, that I could create something myself that could get a reaction from people.
From there I learned how to sew; I learned how to take shoes apart. I learned how to sew on top of shoes and it was something that I was dedicated to.
What are you currently working on?
Right now I build samples and prototypes, and develop for brands. I do everything from customizing shoes, to completely remaking a shoe the same way a factory overseas would do. Now I have started my own line, which I am going to be showing in Paris.
The line is original designs that we actually hand-make ourselves, stuff from vintage military fabrics and deadstock fabrics—and we create one-of-a-kind shoes. Every shoe is slightly different. They are all still custom in a sense.
We do everything here. We design, we make our samples, we manufacture here. It’s a lot of work. That’s why I never leave here.
Photo by Ben Hooper
Photo by Ben Hooper
Let’s talk some soccer. You recently appeared at the adidas Mercury Lounge event in LA, a one-off celebration of the marriage of art and soccer. What was your role there?
Adidas brought me out to customize six pairs of cleats for different professional players, two stores, and the adidas Football Creative Director. I did a pair for James Rodriguez where I completely redid his with gold leather. They gave me briefings for each one and then I designed it and made them on site for people to see.
I also did boots for Paul Pogba and Gyasi Zardes, as well as soccer.com, Nikys Sports and Sam Handy from adidas.
Photo courtesy of adidas
What was the process of designing a boot for these players?
I got briefs on each player which gave me a basic idea of what the player is about. Maybe some points on what they represent, their numbers, hairstyles – all that kind of stuff. The most time-consuming part is conceptualizing what needs to be done. I need to think about an idea that works and makes sense to present to them.
When you are designing and customizing a product like a soccer boot, do you have to approach it differently in order to retain its performance qualities?
Let’s go back real quick. When I was in high school I would always get the dopest, most expensive cleats. The first cleat I customized I took to a place and had them embroider on the tongue. So that was wearable. For the last World Cup, I remade my adidas Predators with python tongues and they are actually wearable.
To your point, James’ cleats are definitely not wearable because I took the upper off of the sole. I mean they are wearable, but it’s a liability if he actually wore them on the field. It’s more of an art piece for them.
But the pairs I did for Pogba and Zardes are wearable if they wanted to. For Gyasi I added black python to the existing boot. With James’ I completely redid the boot.
When I first started I would paint shoes and then the paint would come off. I’m not just trying to make an art piece, I want to make it functional. I want you to wear a pair of customized cleats everyday and not have them fall apart.
I have soccer players that want me to put Yeezys on soccer cleats. They want me to do all kinds of different things.
Photo by Ben Hooper
Photo courtesy of adidas
How long did the whole process take on these special boots?
James’ took me two days to finish after the concept was finalized. Pogba and Gyasi I knocked out in a couple hours once the concept was done. James was like three days total because I had to take it apart, re-pattern it, remake it, do a whole new last. It was more traditional shoemaking. The other ones I still had to re-pattern them and put them back together.
Photo courtesy of adidas
You played soccer growing up and you started playing again after the last World Cup. What does the sport mean to you?
Soccer is the best sport in the world. I want to build out a branch where we can do custom cleats for soccer because I have such a love for it. I want to be able to do custom cleats for kids.
Soccer was huge for growing up. It was probably the best thing that ever happened to me. So being able to have a department that is affordable, but still being able to do custom cleats, for a kid would be cool.
Can people reach out to you for custom soccer boots?
Right now I’m at least six months booked so I probably wouldn’t be able to take work like that on. But that’s where I would like to get — build out a team and have branches where we could do more of that.
