Bringing the Studio to Sneaker Con PR

For Sneaker Con Puerto Rico, I wanted to do more than set up a booth and display my work. I wanted to bring the studio with me.

The idea was to create a small version of the Last Annex workspace and open it up to the public. I brought my industrial sewing machine, materials, tools, previous projects, and works in progress into the space. For two days, the booth became a functioning studio where people could see me work, ask questions, look through materials, and get a closer look at the process behind what I create.

It was an opportunity to show a side of Last Annex that usually happens behind closed doors. The finished pair is only one part of the story. There is experimentation, cutting, sewing, dyeing, mistakes, problem solving, and a lot of time that happens before something is ready to be seen.

Sneaker Con also became the place to introduce The Studio Mule, a limited collection I developed using the New Balance 204L.

The process started by submerging each pair in an olive green dip dye solution. Because the 204L is constructed from different materials, each section reacted to the dye differently. Even pairs that started as the same colorway came out with their own variations in tone.

From there, I cut away the heel to transform the 204L into a mule and covered the newly exposed edge with a plush off-white suede. It was a relatively simple intervention visually, but one that completely changed how the original silhouette looked and functioned. The differences created during the dyeing process also meant that no two Studio Mules were exactly the same.

Leading up to the event, I built an Instagram campaign around the collection and the idea of bringing the studio to Sneaker Con. That rollout generated more than 25,000 views, around 1,000 likes, and 341 new followers, but seeing the project continue to travel outside of my own platform was just as important.

During the weekend, Sneaker Con interviewed me and shared the studio on their official platform. Their video went on to reach more than 82,000 views and 1,100 likes, with 46 reposts and 114 shares. Flan de Coco and We Got Kicks also stopped by and featured the project as part of their YouTube coverage of Sneaker Con PR.

What I enjoyed most about the weekend was being able to remove some of the distance between the final product and the process behind it. People weren't just looking at a finished sneaker on a table. They were stepping into a small piece of the studio and seeing how the work actually comes together.

For a couple of days, the studio wasn't somewhere you had to find.

We brought it to you.