Sneaker Fiend Keia Kodama Creating Museum-Ready Art With Her Shoes

When Kodama shared images of her “Hair Force 1s” — a customized pair of Nike Air Force 1 sneakers in tribute to Black hair — she had no idea she was launching her career to new terrain. She took a couple of weeks after finishing the project before sharing it publicly in November 2021. In her mind she was only updating a tradition she’d naturally fallen into two decades ago: Kodama had long incorporated sneakers into her work as she curated and styled photoshoots for California-based fashion brands through her company, Heirs of Threads.

“I was a skater girl,” Kodama explains. “In California, we would take our Vans and our Chucks and customize them, and do our personal touches with markers or bleach. I didn’t realize until we were filming that I was doing that back in high school.”

The Hair Force 1s were Kodama’s first sneaker-based art on display, making it all the way to the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento. Building upon that success, 2022 has been her first year as a full-time artist. While presenting sneakers as high art is now a tangible reality for her, Kodama still finds inspiration from a pure place.

“I was the coolest, nerdiest kid in the world. I was always fresh, but I was a nerd. My hero was Indiana Jones. So I think I just pull from the kid in me and want to do the things I liked as a kid for the most part. That ’80s, ’90s kid. That Rainbow Brite, He-Man, Ninja Turtle kid.”

Kodama says most times when she buys sneakers she’s still looking to keep them as they are. It’s usually because a pair has been sitting unworn for a long time that she decides to improvise. In fact, even after the glowing response to the Hair Force 1s, she was still hesitant to dive headfirst into sneakers as art pieces.

“I learned to accept it, I think, when I got into Crocker, that this is my medium. This is 100% my medium, and they’re my favorite canvas. So if I can create with or on sneakers, I’m going to do it.”

Like any dedicated sneakerhead, Kodama has stories of tragedy and triumph when it comes to snagging (and holding on to) a coveted pair of kicks. Remembering those accounts brings back vivid emotions for Kodama.

Before the days of online raffles, the release of Air Jordan “Bred” 11 sneakers was enough to convince Kodama and her friend to camp outside a store from 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. in 30-degree December weather. After 13 hours of waiting, the store ran out of the sneakers before Kodama could get her hands on them. Rather than give up, she called an audible.

“I had to rush to another store early that morning and, luckily, because I worked retail so long, I bumped into a manager I know that was like, ‘Here, I have your size.’”

If not for that stroke of luck, this incident might have surpassed Kodama’s biggest sneaker nightmare: when she attempted to gift her boyfriend another pair of Jordan sneakers — the black-and-white Concord 11s.

“I went to a charity event, and I wanted to surprise him when he came, so I took them out of the car, and sat them on a rolling rack where my clothes were,” Kodama recalls. The event was at a Goodwill store where she had volunteered some of her own clothes to the cause.

“I literally was standing on the side of them, talking to someone who’s facing me looking at them, and someone somehow slipped the bag off the other side of the rack. We watched the video and I’m standing next to the rack, next to the sneakers, and somehow someone slid the shoes from underneath my coat, and walked out of the store with them. I’m doing charity work right now and I got robbed, watched it on camera, and there’s nothing I could do about it.”

While Kodama says it never crossed her mind to do it herself, a friend of hers made a GoFundMe page for her, and a sympathetic community of sneaker fanatics donated enough money to cover the cost of the sneakers. She now laughs at her misfortune and appreciates the eager support displayed by the sneaker community.