The Aylesbury teenager turning old trainers into works of art

A teenager has won praise for transforming old footwear into street art pieces – complete with lamp posts.

Stella Stockbridge, from Aylesbury, began by redesigning an old Jordan trainer before her art went viral on social media.

The 19-year-old was already using social media for her business until her experiment “blew up” online.

“I expected them to get a lot of hate comments… but overwhelmingly people were so supportive,” she said.

She has produced a seven-part video series showing how she went from cutting out parts of the shoe, to painting it and even adding a light up miniature lamp post.

The shoe itself was already ruined, she said, and instead of it going to waste, she was inspired to create something out of it.

She said it took a week to redesign the shoe, using unconventional materials like clay, foam board and plaster, to transform it into a piece of art.

Miss Stockbridge said she also gets ideas of what to add and graffiti on the trainers from her social media followers, and dubbed the style “sneaker sculpture”.

“The final sneaker has a little part of everyone who supported me on it and it makes it all the more special to me,” she said.

Her videos attract thousands of views, however one garnered more than a million, with commenters debating whether her work should be classed as graffiti or vandalism.

She said: “I expected them to get loads of hate comments because people get quite territorial over shoes… but overwhelmingly people were so supportive.”

She said negative comments created a conversation over what qualifies as art.

Miss Stockbridge also discovered a whole new community of supporters on TikTok, and said it felt like people “have her back”.

Ms Stockbridge has been heavily influenced by graffiti and street art and has found that art has helped her with her own identity.

She said: “Graffiti as an art form is so self-expressive and you can turn the most blank wall into something so beautiful.

“When I was younger I was quite nervous and I didn’t have the best sense of identity so I feel like art has really helped me with that,” she said.