Half custom sneakers, half art therapy: Check out this new Birkdale Village retailer
Mother and son team Ingrid Butler and Irie Butler are planning to restore their Charlotte community’s soles and souls with a new art therapy/custom sneaker shop, Shoed Gallery in Birkdale Village.
Shoed Gallery is a dream that’s been in the works for the last two years, although Irie, 19, has been in the sneaker business for over six. The space is half art therapy studio and gallery, and half custom art sneaker store.
The original plan was to open in April, but COVID-19 paused things a bit. Now, they are ready to provide therapy and healing in a time when the world needs it most, while also giving back to their community.
“I’ve been restoring, customizing and running my e-commerce sneaker business for years,” Irie told CharlotteFive. “My mom and I both worked from home and thought it would be cool to merge our two worlds into a gallery.”
The Cox Mill High grad and current University of North Carolina at Wilmington student displays and sells shoes that he’s collected and restored over the years. He offers sneaker customization in-house, using rhinestones and color blocking. He also offers hydro-film dips. If you are looking for a more detailed customization, he partners with a third-party vendor to bring your vision to life.
A major part of Irie’s business is his dedication to giving back to local nonprofit Boys To Men Foundation of Charlotte, a youth mentoring and development organization.
He collects donated shoes from the community in exchange for shoe bucks that can be used to purchase new kicks from his store, then restores the donated shoes for resale. All proceeds made from the resales are donated to Boys To Men.
Additionally, Irie invites young men from the program to work alongside him so they can learn the process of running a business, as well as the sneaker restoration and customization process.
Several years ago, Ingrid, a registered nurse of 26 years, found herself battling her own personal issues. After traditional therapy methods failed, she began utilizing pour painting as a form of therapy and found the modality to be very beneficial. She eventually went on to become certified to teach classes on her own.
“Pour painting is used for therapeutic art because it changes the neuro path waves in your brain,” Ingrid said. “It’s a fluid art modality that’s known to release negative emotion.”
Pour painting, is a process that doesn’t use any brushes or tools, which is perfect for beginners. The painter uses a thinned out acrylic paint that’s very fluid in consistency and pours it from a cup onto a canvas. You create your art piece by tilting the canvas, which moves the paint in different directions.
“Aligning and learning about yourself can be a very scary process. But once you begin the process, you’ll be very happy that you did.”
Ingrid offers classes through her company, Design Intervention, at Shoed Gallery. Classes can be booked online, and a maximum of four people can attend each class to adhere to social distancing guidelines. You can also view and purchase her paintings in the gallery, as well.
Shoed Gallery
16735 Cranlyn Road
Instagram: @shoed_gallery
Hours: Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from noon to 8 p.m.
