Customized sneakers gain traction - Posted by Michael Fomkin

Gregory Guichard once sweated over a hot glue gun for four days to set 3,000 Swarovski crystals onto a pair of sneakers. Now he professionally produces customized shoes worth hundreds of dollars.
 
Ben Hoffman experimented for a year to get the right group of artists to feed the growing demand for customized sneakers. Now he sells shoes to clients as far away as Japan and Bulgaria.
 
Glenn Pellone spent an exhausting night spray painting a huge naked Betty Boop on the wall of his high school in Brooklyn. Now he is one of the founding fathers of customized gear shoes in New York City.
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"When you go out on the streets, it's gotten so wild with these kids, it looks like Halloween every day," Pellone said.
 
For generations, young people wanted the shoes everyone else had, but there has been a sea change in the culture over the last few years. These days, the goal is customized shoes, the type of sneakers no one else has.
 
"I'm a trend setter. I had to have something one of a kind," said Kevin Parker, a college student who was proudly displaying the $800 customized pink and blue Nike sneakers he bought on a recent trip to Paris.