The Story Behind Jennifer Lopez’s Custom Neon Nike Air Force 1s
To Be Determined, a multi-disciplinary, one-man studio started by 28-year-old Konner Scroggins, is responsible for the sneakers.
A love for shoes and design led 28-year-old Konner Scroggins to launch his own design studio that is making waves in the sneaker community. Specifically, he’s caught the eyes of Jennifer Lopez and Bad Bunny.
Called To Be Determined, the multi-disciplinary studio first launched in 2016 with home goods, and in 2018, Scroggins, who has a background in architecture and installation design, decided to create customized Nike Air Force 1s with acrylic materials.
“I just had some acrylic and I was like how the hell would this work. [My company is called] To Be Determined and it’s kind of based off of how my life is. I’ve just been floating from design jobs to labor intensive jobs, just like figuring out different things,” he told FN. “So I just said I want to make shoes.”
From there, Scroggins began to laser-cut acrylic in the shape of the Nike Swoosh logo, which is then thermaformed by hand, engraved to fit the panels of the Nike AF1 and screwed into the sneaker. He hand builds each pair, which takes one to two hours. Each pair has gone through a wear-testing period of 120 hours and is made to order.
The creation took off after Bad Bunny organically wore a pair on tour in 2019.
But, it was Lopez who helped Scroggin’s business take off. He said in another organic situation, a friend of J-Lo’s bought her a pair as a gift, which he customized with her J-Lo logo on the heel, not knowing if she would ever wear the pair. Then in August, she posted the sneakers in a TikTok video and she has continued to wear the multi-colored Air Force 1s ever since.
@jlo Happy Sunday Funday!
#Empathy
The limited release turned into 85 pairs of sneakers sold out in 12 hours, according to Scroggins.
“I just understood the power there,” he said about Lopez’s influence. “I kept my head down. I worked hard for two years. I tried new things and J-Lo, she just made a lot of shit happen. I was losing my mind.”
As one-man operation who works out of his garage in Charlotte, N.C., Scroggins does not typically make custom orders, but instead comes up with a design and releases drops in limited quantities. The To Be Determined Multi Color Thermoformed Acrylic AF1 will not be released again, he said.
However, in 2021, Scroggins is looking to drop a different AF1 sneaker customization per month.
“The Air Force 1 has been a canvas to customize. And a lot of people have been painting on them or they dye them and they do like different manipulations,” he said. “The language I wanted to add to that story was acrylic and taking it one step further.”