Huff’s website is a peek into the breadth of her work and what she can offer customers. There’s everything from picturesque canvas art to watercolor paintings to colored pencil drawings. She added “custom shoes” to her repertoire last fall at the suggestion of her husband, who asked her to try painting a pair of his white Air Jordans.
“It turned out better than I expected,” Huff said. “It was a lot of fun.
“I had already started my art business and had an Instagram page for my art, so I just kind of added that as a post. I did a pair for myself, too. We did a little photoshoot on the Culbreth Garage in Charlottesville. And then we started advertising that I do custom shoes because of how much I loved it, even after doing just two pairs.
“From there, I honestly wasn’t sure which direction it would take – and it was way more popular than I thought it would be.”
Customers usually buy the shoes and then send them to Huff for design. The design prices range from $200 to $450, depending on the type of shoe and complexity of the art.
For the UVA football order, Daves gathered details from Elliott and the players on what they would want on their white Air Force 1 Nikes and then relayed the information to Huff. She worked on them in a variety of hotel rooms along the West Coast as Jay Huff, a member of the Los Angeles Lakers organization, participated in the NBA’s Summer League.
“Los Angeles, then to San Francisco, then to Las Vegas and then back to Virginia,” Lindsay Huff said. “These shoes have been on four different flights.”
Daves, who picked the shoes up and delivered them to Charlotte, appreciated the dedication.
“The shoes are a reflection of the history of the individual and also their role at UVA,” he said. “She did a fantastic job of knocking these out.”
While each individual’s pair of shoes had their own personal touches, they all featured a diamond pattern to represent the Scott Stadium’s signature end zone designs.
Huff was at her family’s home in Ruckersville last Thursday when the ACC Kickoff shoes first hit social media. She was flooded with around 30 requests in less than 24 hours. The more people saw what was on the feet of the Wahoos in Charlotte, the more they wanted to know how to get a pair of their own.
“I was on Instagram a lot, answering direct messages from various people,” Huff said. “Some were actually in Charlotte; others just saw the shoes posted on Instagram, and some were just watching the media day coverage on ACC Network.
“I think it’s safe to say I’ll be a little busy the next couple weeks. But it’s exciting.”
Daves said the reaction in Charlotte exceed his expectations.
“I kept looking around and seeing the guys as people were taking pictures of them and talking about them,” Daves said. “It was fun. And that’s all we wanted to do. We wanted to have some fun. We wanted to say, ‘Hey, we’re Virginia. We’re going to have some fun here. We’re going to get our name out there a little bit.’
“And I think we accomplished that.”
