In the first rendition of the “artists who don’t study art” series, Jennifer Kim breaks down how she maintains her custom shoe-painting business as a Ryerson engineering student, highlighting the importance of prioritizing your art even when it’s not centred in your studies. 

By, Sama Nemat Allah 

“Your degree determines your career” is a widespread and entrenched belief amongst university students. If this platitude was indeed true—though many will argue that it is not—then the exception is Jennifer Kim, a second-year mechanical engineering student with a flair for the arts. 

Kim uses her creative aptitudes to run a commission-based shoe painting business, using ordinary sneakers as a canvas for striking works of art. 

“I’ve always been passionate about art,” said Kim in an interview with CanCulture. “When I moved from South Korea to Canada, I had these language barriers. So the way I communicated was through my art.”

As a substitute for verbal expression, Kim would often employ art and colours as a means to translate her emotions to her teachers and peers.

“I would do a lot of these expression paintings where red paint would mean I was angry and blue paint would mean I was sad,” she explains. “It originally started as a way to express myself visually instead of orally because I wasn’t able to speak English at the time.” 

Kim continued to pursue art all throughout her high school career, with photorealism serving as her preferred medium, something she asserts stems from her perfectionism.

However, due to external familial pressures, Kim enrolled in Ryerson’s mechanical engineering program to pursue what many told her was a more “viable career choice.”

The program’s intensity caused her to shift away from art and focus more on school instead. However, getting into shoe painting is what reignited her passion and creativity.

“It sparked motivation in me. It led me back to my art. It keeps me inspired, and it keeps me on my feet.”

Kim credits the genesis of her artisanal shoe business to the lifestyle she uncovered while attending university.

“Coming to Ryerson, I was exposed to a lot of culture. Everyone was into shoes, and now I’m kind of a shoe fanatic. Online and on Instagram, I found people painting custom shoes, and I started doing it myself on some old pairs that I had lying around, and I realized: I can sell these.”

Kim painted her first commission over a year ago for her brother’s friend. She borrows from her photorealistic art competencies to do highly-detailed anime and character designs.  

“The majority of my commissions are custom-made-to-paint. I would make a mock-up, talk to the client and move forth with that design.”

As an engineering student, Kim says she implements a lot of her learned skills into her work and art, bridging the assumed gap between sciences and creative ventures. 

“I feel like engineering, even though it seems very math and science-heavy, there is still that design component. Growing up, I’ve only done traditional art but I’ve always wanted to experiment with more computerized art because that’s our future.”

Kim notes that learning about the schematics behind building new designs helped her boost her business on the side because “engineering is all about creativity.”

“I do mock-up designs to make sure it will look nice on the shoe and that the client will actually like it and I use computer-aided-design (CAD) software, which I wasn’t familiar with before engineering.”

CAD softwares are used in architectural and engineering fields to allow users to create designs in a three-dimensional landscape. For Kim, CAD allowed her to project a 2D figure of her customer’s shoe design within a 3D space and observe every angle in the editing process. 

To Kim, her business allows her to prioritize her art, which provides her with an opportunity to balance a day saturated with schoolwork with something that she’s passionate about.

“I also do this work because it makes people happy… Meeting different people too is so inspirational for me”

In the upcoming year, Kim hopes to continue to grow her business beyond the GTA, expanding to national and international shipping through websites like Etsy. She plans on staying inspired by relying upon the expressive and artistic environment that surrounds her.

“The world around me inspires me as an artist. Especially in Toronto, there’s so much culture and diversity and I’m always seeing ideas everywhere. Something is always going on: someone is singing or the billboard features all these different colours and it’s inspiring.”

Check out Jennifer Kim’s work on Instagram @customshoezto and DM her for any commission inquiries.