The Collectibility of Chummy’s Custom Footwear with Colin Szumski

Could you do something with a Jordan rookie card built into a shoe? It definitely gets me thinking. We could definitely come up with something cool. That's nice. Welcome to the Collector Nation podcast here on the Collector Nation Network. Whether you're chasing grails or calling bluffs, we take you inside the hobby. Here's your host, Ryan Alford. Collectibles aren't just cards and memorabilia anymore. They're experiences, stories, and one of kind pieces that can't be replicated. Today we're talking about a brand that treats sneakers the same way collectors treat grails. Colin Chaminsky, the founder and creative director of Chummy's Custom Shoes, creates true one of one pieces. Working with major teams, athletes and brands where no two pairs are ever the same, we're breaking down how custom sneakers fit into the collectibles world, what it's like creating for the biggest stages, and why scarcity and story matter more than hype. Colin, welcome to Collector Nation. Appreciate it, Ryan. Thank you for having me excited. Yeah, man. Did our intro segment get it right? I think, yeah. Overall, I think that's the big picture for sure. Definitely telling a story through our shoes for sure. Yeah. I mean, it's cool, man. It's like you think about in some ways and I know, look, I'm, I'm in the shoe game like that much. Like, I know what I like. Stuff hits my radar and I buy it. But I'm not like, I'd be lying to say. I'm like, oh, I'm knee deep in it. But you know, I know like shoe surgeon. Some of the like pioneers, like creating custom shoes, those kind of people I'm connected with and aware of. So it's not necessarily new, but it's not. It's interesting that we haven't maybe come further along in this. So when I saw what you were doing, I was like, this makes a lot of sense. When did you realize, you know, was what you were making wasn't just footwear but. But was collectible? Well, funny enough, I actually. So after I graduated, just kind of skipping around a little bit, I actually visited the shoe surgeon in LA to potentially work there. Didn't get the job, but it is what it is. Everything happens for a reason. Yep. So, but I mean, yeah, so I went to school for architecture. So that's kind of like my background. So I think I've always felt I've had a different way of looking at things. So I was just creating shoes all throughout school during COVID That's when I started and then I was just kind of making just. I think it really started just making cool things and trying to thinking outside the box. But I think when it really started to click with the collector market was when we introduced our jersey shoes, which is, if you're not familiar, we pretty much take your favorite player's jersey, your favorite team's jersey, and cut that up and put it onto a shoe and doing that. That's been able to bring us a lot of cool opportunities and bring us to a lot of cool events, meet a lot of cool people. And that really started from. It was when the Chiefs and the Super Bowl. Yeah, the Chiefs and the Niners are playing in the super bowl in Vegas. And around that time was Kristen Jusek. I always butcher her name, but she's a girl. That's a tough one. Yeah, tougher than mine. I thought Chomsky was hard, but, you know, now that I know it, I got it right. Yeah, well, like, she was. That was like when the big rise in popularity around the jack, the custom game day fits and the jackets and things like that. So I just thought of like, no one has really done it on a pair of shoes. So that's when the first shoe came about was during that Super Bowl. And then I did one for both the 49ers and the Chiefs, and those videos did really well. And then ever since then, it just been kind of a steamroll. Next player was Jason Kelsey, then Mahomes and then Palamalu and then Aaron Judge. So I think it's cool how these shoes are not just for football. Like, it could be any, any team, any player from any sport. We. We've done rugby shoes before. I mean, a bunch of people have reached out to us about like cricket, so motocross, F1. So I mean, I think that's one of the cool things about what we do is there really is no. Really is no limitations on what we can do. How many people are buy. How many people are wearing these shoes versus just putting them in a case. So that's a good question. I feel like it's 50. 50. Okay, I'll take that back. I think people wear them once for the event or for the moment or whatever it is, and then they'll put them up. So I think, I mean, I've had a couple people, they like, they wear them to like a meet and greet. Like one. One guy we had a meet and greet with, Jason Kelsey. He wore them, showed him the shoes, and he signed the shoes and then he put them up in a case. So that's part of the cool thing too is players have seen these and sign these. And I was just on Mark Price's interview or podcast about a month or two ago because he saw the shoes that someone made and then he signed those. The basketball player. Yeah. Yeah, so. So, yeah, I don't know. It's cool to see how these shoes have. Giving us access to all these different types of people. Yeah, man. It's smart. I mean, and also just I look. It's not surprising when a creative guy, you're. Look, I came up in the ad agency business, so I'm the. I was the strategic creative account guy. So I was a weird hybrid of these things. So. But creative people using that creativity also to start kind of, because you could point that towards a lot of different things, but using your kind of ability to design and build and do these things creatively in a space that has kind of this culture and commerce. It's super smart. And like, it's so cool because it gives you this access, like you said. Because that's what I was thinking. I was like, God, this guy created this thing that then these superstars and everybody, they want to get behind it because they're attached to it, right? Yeah, no, for sure. I think. I think the coolest. One of the coolest moments for me was definitely going to the super bowl and meeting the Manning brothers and doing a pair for. For them. And those shoes had like, luckily they. I mean, they won two Super Bowls each, so it was cool to have like, each of the toe boxes had one of the patches from the. The jersey, so. And then also meeting Dwyane Wade this past Art Basel in Miami to. To celebrate his 20 year and 20 year anniversary for the Miami Heat 06 finals win. So I think it's cool how. Because I don't know, I feel like guys of their stature, they like, they just get products and gifts and stuff that don't, like, mean anything or like, they see it once and then it just goes in their closet and they'll probably never be seen again. So I think what we do is cool how I feel like the biggest thing that we do is drive emotion out of what we get or what we serve and just seeing the reaction on the guy's face because it's like most people have never seen something like this before, so it's always cool to see their genuine reaction. And I think you can tell it kind of hits them close to home a little bit. It kind of takes them back in their career. I mean, Josh Allen's my favorite player calling, if you wanted to know. I'm saying, I know we could put them right up where those green ones are. Dude, I get this. It can move right out. You know, we could put a label Colin, which you know, chummies his, his, you know, cut me a, you know, a deal on something is if you don't mind, what are we talking about here? You know, let's go right at it because if I'm listening, I'm going, damn, I want me some custom shoes. So if, if you're willing, like what, what are we talking about? Like starting point, like for something that you do. I would say starting point is probably around 850, which, which in at least for our pricing it includes the shoes, the Air Force ones and the jersey. But I would say the more design stuff or I guess anything on top of that is probably around the 1100-1250ish. Reasonable for custom. I'm telling you that's not, I mean that's. Yeah, reasonable. Yeah, I think, yeah, I agree. Is that, yeah. I'm just telling you, if you're listening like and you're going, whoa, let me look. You paid, you know, 4, 5, 600 for some of these shoes that are just like everybody else's. You get a one on one. Is everything one on one? Still calling. Are we duplicating anything? For the most part, everything is one on one. But we always have people coming to us for, for bulk orders and things like that. So they might get 5, 6, 7, 8 of the same thing. Yeah, sometimes. But I mean we've had orders as big as like 70 to 100 pairs. Yeah. For these companies and brands. So all starting with. So everything starts with the base shoe of an Air Force One. That is the most popular. And is this, I mean, am I holding up essentially what you start with? Pretty much. I personally like the Air Force just because at least how our style is. I think it fits better. I think there's more space on the side of the shoe. You'll be able to see more of the player name. I don't know. This is Jordan, but there's essentially similarity in there. Yeah, we could do any brand Adidas Puma. So do some people send you the shoes? Yes, some. If they have like a very specific. If they want like a Jordan 3 or 11 or something like that or if they already have it. Yeah, that would work. This is my brand color, my original brand radical. My ad agency. So these are semi custom. Yeah. But yeah, the similar. I think it's the exact Same model shoe, actually. Yeah. So, I mean, people, they send us the shoes, they send us a jersey if they have like a collection or maybe like if they have like a. An old player that doesn't play for the team anymore, like Cooper Cup. We've had a lot of people reach out to us about sending their. Their Rams jerseys to us just because what are they going to do with it now? But hey, now you can make a cool shoe out of it. I think we need a mashup between Tommy's with, you know, reclaimed cards. Like as he makes. Like you got the shoe and then the card together, like framed or something. That could be a funny matchup. Yeah, I agree. We've actually, we have talked a couple times. So that's. Yeah, that could be a cool collab, I think. I think Collector nation needs to be in there, like bringing it together. You know, here it at Collect Collector Station. We've got a huge store and like, we need, like, we need like factory build. Right. I'm kidding. Now I'm getting overboard. But we'll bring it together somehow, some way. And maybe it's a. Look when we had him on. You'll get a kick out of this column. I have a Jordan Rookie is probably PSA 5. I haven't had it graded yet. Those are going for about 6k, 6, 7k depending on whatever. Yeah, I was just going to let him butcher it, cut it up and turn it into something custom. But a real card. Yeah, maybe you could. What would you do? Could you do something with a Jordan rookie card built into a shoe? Have you ever done that? Something with a card other than like the memorabilia itself, like the jersey or something? I haven't. It definitely gets me thinking, though. Yeah, there's something we could definitely. There was something baller about just going cut that $6,000 card up, but then it goes into something one of one and it was made with the real rookie card. I thought there was something. I mean, Jordan's my favorite player. Yeah. So like basketball wise. Josh Allen, football, Jordan, basketball. Anyway, no, I think it's. I think it's interesting because some people could look at that and think that it's worth more, but then also people think, oh, you just ruined it. Now it's worth nothing. So I think it's. I don't know. It's a cool, cool conversation. Cool, cool perspectives. Could y' all split it? Could you make and. I don't know. You know, it's probably easier for him making a custom card out of a card for you. I Don't know how you build. You know, you might have to cut the cardboard and, you know, shave. I don't know. You're creative. You might just come up with something. Hey, that might get you guys excited because I'm giving you, hey, I'm getting you a 6.6k card to work with. That could be. And then if we had a. A signature and a game worn, like jersey, it could get pretty badass. Yeah. So, yeah, we'll think about that. I know every, you know, we talked about it. You create a, I mean, look, you create a shoe and it creates a story. But a lot of these shoes have stories because of, you know, the game worn or whatever, you know, memorabilia might have come with it. How important is that for you? I think it's really important, to be honest. I think that's because we always, I mean, as chummies, we believe that we're more than a shoe company. Like, yeah, we make the shoes. But that's not. I feel like that's not the main thing that we sell. I think we really sell the story, really, Ideally, pretty much. I get. We really strive on our moments. So whatever that moment is, trying to take that and put it into a shoe, to be able to put it up on your shelf like these. And now every time that you look at it, you can. It takes you back to that moment, whether whatever that moment is, it doesn't have to be a sporting accomplishment. It could be, I don't know, maybe you sold your business, your business, or maybe you just had a kid or something like that. So, I don't know. Just life. Championship moments are really what. What we focus on. That's really what drives everything, especially for me personally. I think, Yeah, I think that's. That's what we want to get out of life, really. Just moments. How many pairs of shoes has Colin custom made personally, Personally? Is it thousands at this point? Hundreds? I would say thou. I would say in the thousands for sure. I mean, at this point, I'm not, I'm not touching every single shoe. Yeah. At this point. Yeah. Let's talk about that growth and that scaling. You know, what's that been like and how have we done it? It's been good and tough. Overall. Good. But I think the hardest part for me was letting go because I think of. I'm like, I don't know. This is kind of like my baby. I have found people that I trust a little bit enough to. To get me hands off. Transparent entrepreneur talk here. Yeah, yeah. But it's been hard. But I mean, I found Chris. I don't know if he, he's more like the CEO business guy. So I found him to be able to take care of all the, all that side of stuff so I can really focus on the creative and what I'm good at. But yeah, no, it's been, it's been tough to let go. And so that's, that's something I'm, I'm trying to work on and just trying to get confident in for sure. How many shoemakers do we have? And is it all, I mean, is it all by hand still? Yes. I mean, right now we have, I would say four or five artisans right now. But if we have a big order, we, we can bring in more eventually. Our goal, or one of our goals is to create our own shoe. Still working on that. To be able to do larger numbers and be able to play with the designs more and things like that. And honestly, it's to get away from Nike too, because I know you probably know what happened with the surgeon and everything. Yeah, they're very sue happy, I would say. Yes. They got money to throw at lawyers. That's the thing. They can always outspend you, you know, like, I don't care if you're a billionaire. I mean, Nike can always, 9 out of 10 times, outspend you if they want to. Right. But I will say make sense, you know, it doesn't have to make sense. Yeah. But I will say what we're doing is complet legal. We buy the shoes and the jersey from licensed retailers and products and we cut that up and make it into a one of one piece of art. So we are in the clear. No, that's good. It's smart. You don't, I mean, you just, you don't need to poke the bear and. Right, no need. And you know, and you like their shoes. I mean, you're good with their shoes. You don't necessarily probably love all their business practices. Most people don't, but, you know, what do you do? So when did the big teams start knocking on the door and what's that process been like, you know, working with, you know, more of the larger corporations and then the major teams? Yeah, the first one was the Philadelphia Eagles. So what we did with them was they actually gave me a game used football and a game wore in Brandon Graham jersey. The cool thing about that jersey was it was the salute to service game jersey. So it had the camo captain's patch. So what they wanted to do with that was we were commissioned to do I think it was seven or eight pairs from that one jersey. Half of them were going to be auctioned off for the Eagles Autism foundation, and they actually gifted one to Brandon Graham. And I'm not sure what they did with the other ones, but that was like the first. First big brand deal and then it kind of moved into the sponsored content. So pretty much like for Pringles, for example, we worked with them. It was the start of football season. They wanted to make a custom Pringles cleat, and then we record a video and post it. So that was like another big brand deal. But, yeah, I don't know. I think I've learned a lot from that first one compared to where we are now, how everybody operates and things like that, how to make it go smoother. For sure. Yeah. The brand thing's interesting. I mean, it's probably a good way to augment. I mean, hey, I hope you're marking it up big time for those brands now. They got dollars. Pump it up, you know, throw in some extra, you know, I don't know. Frizzle frazzle, I call it. It's called the pet attacks. Pain in the ass of dealing with a big brand, usually. And I'm not saying about Pringles. I don't know. I work with them specifically, but I've. In the ad agency world, I've worked with the largest brands in the world and some are great and a lot of them are pain in the ass. Yeah. But hey, they got corporate lawyers, they got all that stuff. And yeah, what happens in the custom shoe if he. If it not reinforced and someone slips, you know, and. Yeah, who knows what you could get into. But that's cool, man. What's your favorite? Like, was. Was there like a pinch myself moment like a player or somebody? You know, you've already named some big names, but like, you know, for you personally, I think the first one was Brittany Mahomes. We did. We worked with her stylist to do a pair for her. This was two years ago or so, but she wore them on the field and she posted them too, which that kind of led. That's nice. Yeah. So thank you. Yeah. So that actually led us into getting a article with People magazine, which I was super cool. And then this past November, I'm from Cleveland, so I don't know if you know who Machine Gun Kelly is. I know exactly who. Yeah. So being from Cleveland, so we gifted a pair to him when he was performing in Orlando. So I was super cool just to give to someone that kind of Is your. I don't want to say hometown hero, but someone that's made it a big deal from your hometown. I would say my dream client or celebrity would be. I'll give you my top five. All right, I'm not listening to these guys calling. All right, let's hear it. Number one is LeBron, just because of. So I'm actually from a Dino, which is like 30 minutes from Akron, so I grew up. I played basketball growing up, so watching him on the Cavs was pretty cool. Yep. I got a friend who ran his agency, so. All right, that's a good start. Calling on Access. All right, who we got next? Tom Brady number two. Yeah. Tb. We. We know tb. He's a big in the card game now. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I met him at the national and then ran into him at the Fanatics Fest this past year. Smart guy. No, yeah, I think, obviously super talented goat, but also very smart. Yeah, no, for sure. I think Tiger woods is up there. Yeah. Drake, for sure. Drake. Yeah, that'd be a cool collab. I mean, Drake, Jake be down for this. He needs to be down for this. You know, I know he's got everything. Yeah. And then I think Michael Phelps would be pretty cool, too. Yeah, that's cool. Especially right now thinking about Olympics. I know it's Winter Olympics, but yeah, it's kind of top of mind, but, yeah, Phelps will be cool. Do a lot of cool with his stuff. So. A lot of. A lot of goats. All right. Hey, man, look, he got nowhere to go, but, you know, like, up. You got momentum behind you, you know, getting the word out and all that. I mean, obviously no one has to tell you that influencer marketing works when Ms. Mahomes drops a post. But what is. I mean, you guys, how do you market? I mean, is it just social and like the word of mouth? I mean, I would think you probably got all the orders you want just from the word of mouth. That happens. Yeah. I think our Instagram and TikTok Social is very prominent in our. In our marketing. The content that we post does fairly well. And then, yeah, the word of mouth is big, for sure. Just referrals and things like that. And I also think the people that we have done stuff for kind of builds credibility and definitely helps with our case of our pricing, because I know it's. It's definitely up there, but it's been organic up to this point, so it's been good. But we could always grow more, but that's what we're trying to do. So Scarcity is everything in collectibles. A lot of times. I mean, how intentional are you about keeping pieces truly limited? Pretty much every piece that I've made for a celebrity or athlete, I. I don't make that. Again, most of the stuff that you see on our Instagram and TikTok is. Are from clients. So pretty much the. I don't want to call them standard, but the standard team jersey shoes of, like, the Florida Panthers or like the Rams or Seahawks or something like that, we do create or recreate those based on the client's requests. But anything that's delivered to an athlete or celebrity, we. I think that's how it should be. Is stay that one of one just for them. I don't know how you look at it, but that's. That's kind of how I. Yeah, man. I mean, the right way and I mean, do you. Seems like if we're not already there, we're quickly moving towards, like, I mean, custom shoes being viewed the same way as game worn. More memorabilia. I mean, if not greater, especially if they have it built into it. No. Yeah, for sure. I didn't even think about it like that. Yeah. I mean, how do you protect authenticity as demand grows? You thought about that at all? Yes, yes. We have, number one, it's definitely trademark. And then thinking introducing some sort of technology to authenticate it in a way. Blockchain or something. Yeah, I think Nike actually just did something like that recently with their new tech. I don't know. It was the one with the balls on the bottom. Yeah, they're dabbling in that for sure. Yeah. So, yeah, they had some sort of system. So, I mean. Yeah, as we keep growing, I think the pieces that we're making now, I think, or go up in value as we grow. So I think a good. We talked about it a little bit, but let's be explicit for our listeners and viewers. Hopefully you're viewing, you know, all this. All these lovely shoes behind me that aren't chilmies, unfortunately. I wear people out. I'm just gonna tell. Oh, no. All right. The process from start to stop, like on this we talk, we kind of jump straight into it, because it made me wonder, all right, what are we talking about on price here? But talked about the. What's the typical process for someone start to finish on an order? For the most part, people come with an idea already because they've seen what we've already created, for example. So everything that we post on Instagram has been a commission of some sort. And in order for us to make a new team or new design, someone has to purchase that design because it's very cost costly to. To make, because, I mean, we got to buy the shoes at whatever price and then the jersey at whatever price. So it's. It's a lot of money and effort to make a new design without any proof or that someone will order it. So someone will be like, oh, can you do Tampa Bay Lightning? And which. Yeah, we can. We can do any team, any player. So they would fill out a form on our website or reach out to us, and then we would kind of go back and forth. If they want to add anything, they're like, switch it up. Maybe they like a patch on the toe, but instead they want to put it on the side. So we kind of go kind of like a consultation, kind of go back and forth until we're both satisfied. And then we purchase the materials, or you send us the materials, and then from there we just go into production. I would say average production time is about three to four weeks, roughly. Yeah. And then after that, we send you final pics and ship it out in a nice box and you're ready for that unboxing moment. Does the fact that I wear a size 15 add any complexity to this? No. I mean, honestly, I think it's easier to work on bigger shoes than the use shoes, for sure. Plus, if it's bigger, you can. I don't know, you can see more of the. Exactly. I was hoping you'd say that. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So I heard the process. So are there some, though, that I guess maybe, for a lack of better word, Collins. So bear with me here, like, getting commission, so to speak, because someone has bought something and you can make a lot more with. Is there ever, like, turnkey where someone comes in and they know they want a certain player and you have. Or you mark it on your website, like, okay, we're gonna make 10 more with this certain thing. Is that part of the process? Sometimes. Sometimes. I think if it's around, like, a certain event or like a championship, kind of like how fanatics does the. Like, they drop the championship shirts right after, though. So that's also a play for us is like, oh, we're only making 10 Super bowl theme Seahawks shoes. And then that'll kind of add that scarcity and kind of cement this moment. Is there any shoes within grabbing distance that we could show off to our smart viewers who are watching this on YouTube? Colin is grabbing something in the background here. Something amazing. I can tell already. Oh, yeah. All right. What we Got. Let's see it. Oh, nice. This was our super bowl inspired design in New Orleans for Super bowl lax. So the backstory with this one is we were brought out by FanDuel to do some live customs on site, which is also something that we do is live personalization and hospitality on site. So pretty much they brought us out and we. For their VIP members and we designed 25 shoes before we got there. And then on site they were able to personalize it. So pretty much adding some type of initial date or whatever meant whatever meant to them to put it on the shoe. So this was the shoes that I wore during that weekend. Super bowl inspired. I like this or the LAX logo, I thought was a lot better than. Than this past year's. Yeah, but so, yeah, so I mean, kind of like what I said before I wore these for the weekend. Yeah. And then I put them up on my shelf. So I think it's. I think it's cool. And then this one, this was a Shohei Otani one that we did for the World Series not or two years ago. So it has like his embroidered autograph in Japanese on the toe box. And then it's got like the world, I don't know, the diamond sparkly lace clip. And then you got Dodgers around the back. I could work. I wore these a little bit. You could tell those are dope. Just put them, put them back up on the shelf. I guess you could take them down when you need them, depending on what it is too. So limited, limited wear for limited edition. You know, like, you know, I wore my new Jordans to the airport. That was a mistake. White Jordans. Like, I was like, everybody was stomping on my feet and I was like giving them death stares. Yeah, those are sticky. Yeah, exactly, dude. So much fun. I mean, it's just, you know, you got shoe culture, sneaker heads and you got card culture, and you got merch culture and game worn, player worn. I mean, there's, you know, it's really cool blend of a lot of things that are, you know, going up in value and collectibility. Super smart, man. Really a big fan of what you're doing. Thank you. Appreciate it a lot. Talk to me about where everyone listening can learn more, do some orders, get in touch, all those sorts of things. You can follow us on Instagram and TikTok at underscorechummies. Underscore C H U M M Y S. If you're looking to do a custom order or any events at sporting events, any activations at sporting events or Sponsored content. You can reach out to us@chummiescustoms.com and yeah, we're looking forward to making something unforgettable. I've got some ideas around that. We were working with some brands and people. Brian Ludden from Ludx. We're doing some activations for some different events at Ludx Card Shop in Dallas at the Texas Rangers stadium. Oh, nice. I'm gonna brainstorm with him and maybe come at you with some ideas. That could be cool. I love it. I love it. Really appreciate you for coming on, man. No, yeah, thanks for having me. This was. This is cool. Hey, guys, you never found us. The CollectorNation.com. you go to the App Store, search for Collector Nation. We got the app live and in control right there. Get access to live feed with all the episodes, including this one. And of course, links to all of Chummy's stuff. The stuff. Look, don't go buy another card that you could get anywhere or whatever. That's not really that scarce. Get you one on one shoe, baby. That's what this is about. Collectible Nation right here. We appreciate Chummies, we appreciate Colin, and we appreciate you. See you next time on Collector Nation. Thanks for tuning in to the show. Be sure to follow us on your go to podcast platform and catch the full video episode over on YouTube. Visit us at collectornation. Com and follow Ryan on Instagram at Ryan Alford. Now get out there and collect yours.