Counter Kicks is excited to unveil our first collaborative effort with one of the best sneaker customizers on the scene – C2. Right in time for our official SLAM x CK partnership announcement, this stealthy black/white shoe with bright yellow color hits and woodland camouflage detailing also produces another first: With over 300+ custom creations under his belt, C2 had yet to ever work on an Air Force 1 High silhouette until now.

The story on these begins back in 2005 when I started repping C2 and getting his work out to as many important people and industry heads as I could. In Fall of 2005, within a few weeks span I had landed C2 full page media photo spreads in that year’s SLAM KICKS magazine along with the October/November 2005 issue of COMPLEX magazine for a “top shelf” customizers feature titled “The Hot Steppers”. A month later, C2 was quoted in TIME magazine. His career and reputation as one of the cleanest and most detail oriented sneaker customizers exponentially grew from there.

But back to the shoes, after all the media and press blitz on C2, I had still never actually pulled down a pair of “C2 Customs” myself. So after some discussion in that Fall of 2005, I ended up sending a deadstock pair of White/Black Air Force 1 High’s along to C2 for a reworking. Things got busy, time passed, and eventually C2 headed off to college. Last week, we caught up again and decided to finally pull the trigger on a collaborative creation for Counter Kicks. Running with the “Counter-Intelligence” theme for our site and employing our covert “Suitman” character as an inspiration base to work around, C2 quickly went to work on what he describes as a “hard contrast composition” paired with swapped out black carbon fiber Swoosh logos, and the Suitman disguised within the camouflage-trimmed tongue.

Continue reading to see the complete progress shots and final detail photos of the C2 x Counter Kicks – Nike Air Force 1 High…