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SAN ANTONIO — When Jake Danklefs was growing up, he discovered an interest in art and sneakers. He would basically create his own coloring books of sneakers and his mom even tried to get them noticed.

“She would take the good ones and mail them off to Nike,” says Danklefs. “We never heard back of course, but that’s just something fun that we did.”

From there his interest in creating shoes grew. He started taking old pairs of his brothers shoes and drawing on them. But it was a little later in life when he started making money off his hobby. Danklefs began doing paintings of sneakers and selling them.

“For $500 to $1,000 dollars I would sell portraits of people’s shoes,” says Danklefs. “People loved them and then I thought, if I can paint a portrait of a shoe why can’t I use the shoe itself as a canvas.”

Danklefs had found his calling in life, creating custom sneakers. So he set out to teach himself how to do all the necessary skills to make that happen. There was no YouTube tutorial or site with instructions, he was self-taught. 

“I started doing that and people started ordering those and it kind of blossomed,” says Danklefs.

His custom sneaker business got going but he was still working a separate full-time job. Eventually the moment came when he had to make a bigger commitment to creating shoes if he wanted that business to grow. He got that final push from his late father.

“What took it was my dad getting diagnosed with colon cancer. I quit the day he was diagnosed so I could spend time with him,” says Danklefs. “He was the one that kind of pushed me to do this full time.”

Now that Danklefs had gone all-in on the custom footwear business he needed to catch a break, and that came in the summer of 2013 when his hometown Spurs lost in the NBA Finals to the Miami Heat.

“We ended up doing shoes for LeBron (James) and that blew things up even more,” says Danklefs.

A mutual friend connected Danklefs to the NBA superstar and he created a custom pair of kicks to commemorate LeBron’s back to back titles. James even wore those shoes on the cover of Sports Illustrated for Kids. This gave Danklefs the ultimate street cred and really set him on a course to design shoes for some of the most famous people in the world. He’s worked with Jay-Z, Bad Bunny and Post Malone on sneakers as well as some major companies across the United States. Danklefs is modest when asked why so many people come to him for designs, but he knows having a passion for this is a big part.

“I don’t know what it is that keeps these ideas coming but I think being presented with opportunities fuels more ideas for me,” says Danklefs. “I have a passion for this and I have an eye for what I think is good and bad.”

Not only has Danklefs worked with some of the biggest stars but he has a strong connection to athletes and teams across the sports landscape of Texas. One owner of a few of his creations is Cedar Park standout basketball player Gisella Maul. Each of the last two years Maul has helped Cedar Park win a high school basketball state title and each time in the championship celebration, a pair of custom sneakers designed by Danklefs has been waiting for her.

“Opening that box, I was in complete shock and I really love them,” says Maul. “My dad went out and had them made before we even played a playoff game. That idea of him having that much confidence in me makes the shoes that much more special.”

Maul says her custom Air Force One’s and Jordan 1’s are some of her favorite sneakers. In college, Maul will play at the University of Texas, another place that has used Danklefs for some special sneakers. He’s done work with both the UT men’s and women’s basketball teams. He’s also worked on shoes for the Texas Rangers and Dallas Wings star guard Arike Ogunbowale. 

“When you think of sports and sneakers for me it’s a nostalgia thing,” says Danklefs. “Immediately when you think of a certain shoe it’s tied to whatever player wore them even if it’s not their signature shoe.”

For a guy that works on incredible and unique shoes every day, what is his signature shoe, the project that meant the most.

“The Manu (Ginobili) thing most recently is definitely one of the coolest,” says Danklefs.

A few months ago Danklefs got a call that Manu Ginobili wanted to work with him on a custom pair of shoes that he would wear for his Hall of Fame induction.

“It was very surreal having Manu standing in my house,” says Danklefs. “ We sat right here, got on the computer and he was able to design a pair of shoes for himself.”

A pinnacle type moment for one’s career but Danklefs is not at the pinnacle of his shoe making career. He has hopes of doing more mass production of shoes so he can get to more customers. Right now he has to turn away a lot of business and the projects he does take on have about a year long wait time. He’s created a thriving business and a real name for himself in the sneaker world by just pursuing his childhood passion.

“Wake up every day and am like, 'I’m really making sneakers, art for a living,'” says Danklefs.