- Joe Root: England's elegant Test record-breaker
- Braving war: Lebanon's 'badass' airline defies odds
- Klopp to return as head of Red Bull football operations
- Hezbollah strikes Israel, says it foiled Israeli incursions
- Jurgen Klopp to return as head of Red Bull football operations
- Sinner to face Medvedev in Shanghai Masters quarter-finals
- US weighs Google breakup in landmark trial
- Record-breaking Root guides England to 232-2 in reply to Pakistan's 556
- Japan PM dissolves parliament for 'honeymoon' snap election
- Chinese stocks tumble on stimulus upset, Asia tracks Wall St higher
- 7-Eleven owner confirms new takeover offer from Couche-Tard
- Goodbye Tito? Tomb at risk as Serbs argue over Yugoslav legacy
- Restoration experts piece together silent Sherlock Holmes mystery
- Sinner avoids Shanghai deja vu with assured Shelton win
- Pyongyang to 'permanently' shut border with South Korea
- Trumpet star Marsalis says jazz creates 'balance' in divided world
- No children left on Greece's famed but emptying island
- Nepali becomes youngest to climb world's 8,000m peaks
- Climate change made deadly Hurricane Helene more intense: study
- A US climate scientist sees hurricane Helene's devastation firsthand
- Padres edge Dodgers, Mets on the brink
- Can carbon credits help close coal plants?
- With EU funding, Tunisian farmer revives parched village
- Sega ninja game 'Shinobi' gets movie treatment
- Boeing suspends negotiations with striking workers
- 7-Eleven owner's shares spike on report of new buyout offer
- Your 'local everything': what 7-Eleven buyout battle means for Japan
- Three million UK children living below poverty line: study
- China's Jia brings film spanning love, change over decades to Busan
- Paying out disaster relief before climate catastrophe strikes
- Chinese shares drop on stimulus upset, Asia tracks Wall St higher
- SE Asian summit seeks progress on Myanmar civil war
- How climate funds helped Peru's women beekeepers stay afloat
- Nobel Peace Prize to be awarded as wars rage
- Pacific island nations swamped by global drug trade
- AI-aided research, new materials eyed for Nobel Chemistry Prize
- Mozambique elects new president in tense vote
- The US economy is solid: Why are voters gloomy?
- Balkan summit to rally support for struggling Ukraine
- New stadium gives Real Madrid a headache
- Alonso, Manaea shine as 'Miracle Mets' blitz Phillies
- Harris, Trump trade blows in US election media blitz
- Harry's Bar in Paris drinks to US straw-poll centenary
- Osama bin Laden's son Omar banned from returning to France
- Afghan man arrested for plotting US election day attack
- Brazil lifts ban on Musk's X, ending standoff over disinformation
- Harris holds slight edge nationally over Trump: poll
- Chelsea edge Real Madrid in Women's Champions League, Lyon win
- Japan PM to dissolve parliament for 'honeymoon' snap election
- 'Diego Lives': Immersive Maradona exhibit hits Barcelona
Customised kicks: North Macedonia sneaker artist sketches new path
From a makeshift studio in a cramped apartment in North Macedonia's Skopje, Satja Grabuloski has made his mark as one of the top sneaker artists in the world.
With more than 300 celebrities as customers, Grabuloski has taken orders from famous athletes, actors, and musicians -- including Lebron James and Dua Lipa.
Using an array of paints, Grabuloski and his team of seven artists turn ordinary shoes into works of art -- featuring portraits of famous celebrities, film characters and sports stars along with splashes of vibrant colours.
"Sometimes they call us with a specific idea. Sometimes they say, I have no idea -- make me a good design. We then do whatever it takes to make the client satisfied," Grabuloski, 31, tells AFP as he prepares a shipment of customised football cleats for Real Madrid's winger Vinícius Junior.
A single pair of revamped sneakers painted by his team Swithadot StudioS fetches a starting price at around 1,000 euros ($1,050).
The growing enterprise first started as a hobby for Grabuloski, who remembers using a paint kit his mother bought from Paris to ink patterns on a pair of shoes when he was 12.
More than a decade later, Grabuloski was putting custom designs on sneakers with a permanent marker. The method proved to be a hit with his first batch of shoes selling out in 24 hours.
"That showed me… there is a potential business idea that I am still building and developing today," he adds.
- 'Knocked on 1,000 doors' -
Armed with a marketing degree and a smartphone, Grabuloski relied on word of mouth and networking with social media influencers to help build his brand.
Grabuloski also honed in on targeting athletes and found initial success with painting shoes for handball clubs and popular footballers.
"I have knocked on 1,000 doors -- some of them opened," Grabuloski explains.
"I used the players who bought shoes from us -- one-by-one -- as a starting point to make contacts with their friends, co-players in the club or in the national team."
All the designs made by his team at Swithadot StudioS are unique, according to Grabuloski, with clients given certifications of authenticity and a short note on the ideas behind the artwork.
"Every project includes up to 80 hours of work, but some of the designs, for example sport shoes that were done for Lebron James were being prepared for more than 300 hours," says Grabuloski, while laughing that the massive size of the star player's shoes led to more work.
For now, Grabuloski plans to stay and work in North Macedonia, despite longer shipping times due to the limited number of flights in and out of the Balkan country.
But even as he plans to stay in Skopje, Grabuloski is in the process of opening up a showroom in New York, with plans to expand to other major cities soon.
With his business booming, Grabuloski admits he is often stretched between running the daily operations, networking, and researching new markets, which leaves little time to dabble in his favourite hobby.
"I do not have time to draw anymore," Grabuloski tells AFP. "I miss it very much."
D.Moore--AMWN