24-Year-Old Asked to Create Custom Sneakers for Brittany Mahomes. Next, ‘Hopefully’ Taylor Swift (Exclusive)

Colin Szumski has made it to the big leagues.

The past four years have been “surreal” for the 24-year-old Ohio native, who graduated from Kent State University with a bachelor’s degree in architecture. Instead of stepping into his own field, he decided to start his own sneaker business and has designed shoes for Justin Timberlake, the Philadelphia Eagles – and most recently, Brittany Mahomes.

In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, Szumski explains how his latest custom shoe for quarterback Patrick Mahomes’ wife came to be as he reflects on his career, which he says “sometimes doesn’t feel real” since his first design went viral in 2022.

Szumski tells PEOPLE that he is a self-taught sneaker designer who learned by watching YouTube videos during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, noting that his “first client” was his cousin. “The shoes did well, but obviously not well enough for me to still be doing it full time.”

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Patrick Mahomes custom sneakers by Colin Szumski for Brittany Mahomes, who wore the shoe on the day of the Kansas City Chiefs game.

@_chummys

Fast-forward four years (and another move from Los Angeles to Miami to work for MajorWavez Lab, a custom sneaker workshop), and Szumski says one day he gets a text from Mahomes’ stylist.

“Hey!! I’d love to work with you on a pair of custom sneakers for game night! Your stuff is stupid!!” the stylist wrote, as seen in a screenshot shared on Szumski’s Instagram account.

While the stylist didn’t initially specify who the shoe would be for when she first reached out, Szumski assumed it would be for Mahomes based on context clues on her social media page. “Let’s do it,” he replied when she confirmed it was for the mom of two.

Szumski explains the collaborative process from start to finish, noting that Mahomes’ stylist gave him a “basic idea” that involved using “patchwork,” a technique he was interested in because it was “something that [he’s] never before” in his drafts.

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Colin Szumski and his custom designed sneakers.

@kaymon_farmer

“I created a digital mock-up of the design and sent it to her,” he says, before getting the go-ahead from Mahomes’ stylist to proceed with the custom creation. The process was laborious, requiring time spent “deconstructing and then reconstructing” the shoe.

For the patchwork, Szumski cut up Kansas City Chiefs jerseys (Patrick’s No. 15 jersey, of course) and sewed the pieces around the white Nike Swoosh logo, noting that he used Billie Eilish’s Nike Air Force 1 Low ‘Mushroom’ shoes as inspiration.

In total, Szumski says the process took about 10 to 12 hours from start to finish. “That one was a little longer just because I had no idea what I was doing the whole way through,” he jokes.

The shoes were then shipped to Kansas City in hopes that Mahomes would wear them on game day and post them on Instagram. In the end, it did – and it was a moment that Szumski remembers vividly.

“It was crazy,” he recalls of the response since the photos were released. “I was just staring at my phone for two hours, just trying to figure it all out.”

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Custom Nike sneakers by Colin Szumski inspired by Taylor Swift in collaboration with Pineapple Princess Creations.

@pineapple_princess_creations

Szumski compares the social media reaction to when Timberlake shared his work on Instagram in June. TD Garden asked a designer to create a custom pair of Boston Celtics sneakers for the superstar slated for the 2024 NBA Championship.

“When he posted it on his story, I couldn’t put my phone down,” he recalls.

While it’s not 100% clear how Mahomes’ stylist came across Szumski’s Instagram page (where he’s known as “Chummy’s Creations” online), he “assumes” she saw a video detailing his Taylor Swift-inspired custom sneaker design. That post has more than a million views to date.

The “blinged-out jersey shoe” was created in collaboration with Pineapple Princess Creations and features an NFL logo on the tongue, a Kansas City Chiefs logo on the back heel – and of course, a Travis Kelce jersey across the entire sneaker. The inscription of his name is decorated with jewels.

Taylor Swift and Brittany Mahomes cheer on their boyfriends in matching custom coats at Chiefs-Dolphins game

Colin Szumski designs Kansas City Chiefs-inspired sneakers for Brittany Mahomes.

@maxon.media; brittany mahomes/instagram

“Our intention was to create them, hopefully people would see them and then maybe send them to Taylor if we could get a contact,” explains Szumski. “I think we got close. The video went over well and was definitely seen by some people within the Chiefs organization, but there’s no update on that right now.”

Szumski continues, “I don’t know what’s going to happen, but it would be great if we can still get them to her to see.” In fact, he says he was “hoping” for a repeat of Kristin Juszczyk, like “when Taylor and Mahomes wore her jackets.”

“She was definitely one of the inspirations behind the jerseys,” he adds of Juszczyk, wife of San Francisco 49ers linebacker Kyle Juszczyk, who created the incredible game-day fashion. “I definitely want to work with her on something for game day wear in some way. I can definitely see that happening in the future for sure.”

As for whether Swift will be wearing a Szumski original one day this season? The query is out there. Now, Szumski says, “we’re hoping for a moment.”

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education