Grant Kersey, a manager for the University of Virginia Men's Basketball team, had the opportunity of a lifetime when head coach Tony Bennett told him that for the rest of the season, he could suit up for home games. In the final minutes of a blowout game vs. Coppin St., Grant got to hop in the game. The rest... well, take a look down below.
What we didn't know at the time was that this team would go on to be National Champions. For the National Championship game, I had the opportunity to paint a special pair of shoes for Grant to wear on the bench for the game. We did a bit of brainstorming together and decided to incorporate a spin off of a character from a childhood Cartoon Network show, Kids Next Door. I think this character is special for Grant in the position that he's in because for UVA basketball fans, he's a hometown hero. He really is just the kid next door that got to show up on a big stage. I made the character to be holding up a 1 and a 3 with his fingers to represent Grant's jersey number, 13. (In the SC Top 10 video he didn't even have his real jersey yet, it was just a sample #1 with the last name "Virginia" on the back.) The shoes are Air Jordan 1 Mids and started out as all white. I hand painted everything that's not white with a brush and Angelus leather paint.
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/b0de70690a6fc40d66db66002fc4a848/e85e34e8-ba01-4bcd-8517-17f52b81f544_rw_1200.jpeg?h=cac1a4b3a1d235131c1ce529ffdcca3d)
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/b0de70690a6fc40d66db66002fc4a848/3de45365-985e-4518-9c41-a0eb5a2e6358_rw_1920.jpeg?h=cb919bc9d6a9feaefc90238e2e7adb13)
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/b0de70690a6fc40d66db66002fc4a848/e4d6bc3b-fe1f-45ef-94eb-8fdafff37cf0_rw_1920.jpg?h=b90172e7a0bcc0c2ff513de52050300e)
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/b0de70690a6fc40d66db66002fc4a848/c70c0e64-27c2-479c-94be-2c58eddac1cf_rw_1200.jpg?h=c98176bfb6b0164bb2950d7a6044d391)
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/b0de70690a6fc40d66db66002fc4a848/bb0341dd-a4f6-48d6-a107-b464a638a3c8_rw_1200.jpg?h=ad2b239ea403819ca56dfb876db89aa4)
Additionally, I designed a poster just for fun that features Grant and the shoes.
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/b0de70690a6fc40d66db66002fc4a848/a0f82a9b-0e5e-4bdd-b0a9-867956546200_rw_3840.jpg?h=998ae75b512898f18ca4e6c40d295607)
Overall, I had a lot of fun with these and Grant was great to work with. I'm looking forward to working on more custom sneakers soon.