South African artist Conor McCreedy on creating what could be the world’s most expensive sneakers. 



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A literally stumbled upon a business opportunity.



The renowned South African artist, who only paints in blue,was one day at work in his studio, in a 600-year-old, four-storeyed building in Zurich, when he accidentally spilled some of the monochromatic pigment on to his white sneakers.



Who knew it would lead to a designer line of expensive sneakers.




The artist, resident in Switzerland since 2014, now sells the limited edition sneakers for $3,000 a pair.&nbsp;



What helped that day was that the painting accident was shortly before a meeting with an art collector. 



“This art dealer wanted some work for a private collection.I couldn’t get time to put my shoes on, so I went in my sneakers, and this guy just loved them… He opened up to me and said he likes the idea. ‘Try and take it further’, he said to me,” says McCreedy to FORBES AFRICA, on the phone from Switzerland. 



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="922" height="553" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/sneaker4.png" alt="" class="wp-image-38306" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/sneaker4.png 922w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/sneaker4-300x180.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/sneaker4-600x360.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/sneaker4-768x461.png 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/sneaker4-590x354.png 590w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/sneaker4-400x240.png 400w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 922px) 100vw, 922px" /><figcaption>Artist&nbsp;Conor McCreedy. Picture: Supplied</figcaption></figure>



After spending four months finalizing the collaboration with an established shoe company, Ludwig Reiter, the concept sprung to life. 



A regular pair of their white sneakers sells for $685, but with a splash of McCreedy, it costs almost five times more.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 



“A lot of people can put paint on sneakers. We are not reinventing the world but putting the McCreedy blue on to a sneaker. It has a value chain,” he says.



Even before its launch mid-November, nine of the 200 limited edition sneakers had been sold to collectors from around the world. 



“I love when people say that the splash looks like a kid’s.I actually like that, it has taken me 30 years to create that splash, that is a great story,” says McCreedy. 



He adds the handcrafted sneaker will not only appeal to art lovers who are looking to collect, but even corporate titans and banking CEOs,and the uber-chic would want to wear it at cultural festivals.



In Switzerland, ultra-networth and high-networth-individuals are his customers. 



“The beautiful part is that the sneakers are backed by my art, and compared to the art, they are relatively cheap,” says McCreedy. 



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="926" height="619" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/sneaker2.png" alt="" class="wp-image-38307" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/sneaker2.png 926w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/sneaker2-300x201.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/sneaker2-600x401.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/sneaker2-768x513.png 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 926px) 100vw, 926px" /><figcaption>Artist&nbsp;Conor&nbsp;McCreedy converted an old bank building into his studio and atelier in Zurich. Picture: Supplied</figcaption></figure>



The tranquillity and stability the artist associates with the color blue led to the creation of his own pigment known as ‘McCreedy blue’. 



McCreedy has used it to create most of his paintings since 2011. 



But building a career through art requires more than just mixing color on canvas. 



“Art is always considered a luxury; don’t let anyone fool you when they say it is not luxurious. People don’t just buy art, it is a luxury creation… If Picasso was alive today, he would probably have his own app,” he says. 



His art inspired him to create products, from candles to a coffee blend on sale on the ground floor of his studio. 



The space is curated so it’s an alluring odyssey for customers. 



White walls are adorned with original McCreedy blue paintings, showcasing the artist’s work for prospective buyers, collectors and dealers. 



The ‘Essence of McCreedy blue’ forms part of the luxurious elements the artist wants to reinstate in the art world. 



It took the artist three years in Zurich, one of the global centers for banking and finance, to convert an old bank building into an atelier and studio. “It’s showing how people view the world through the eyes of an artist. It is about being part of the journey and the experience. It is about feeling what luxury is like,” he says. 



Staying true to his African roots, McCreedy draws inspiration from Botswana, Nigeria and South Africa, which he expresses through abstract images. 



“I love African and South African art. It is really stimulating for me and as a growing artist, I like to collect whatever I can afford. One day, I will create my own museum and show what I have from different parts of the world,” says McCreedy. Open to exploring more markets, McCreedy wishes to collaborate with African artists. He would not have it any other way.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="926" height="616" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/sneaker3.png" alt="" class="wp-image-38308" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/sneaker3.png 926w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/sneaker3-300x200.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/sneaker3-600x399.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/sneaker3-768x511.png 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 926px) 100vw, 926px" /><figcaption> Artist&nbsp;Conor&nbsp;McCreedy converted an old bank building into his studio and atelier in Zurich.&nbsp;Picture: Supplied</figcaption></figure>



The world may present the artist with greater opportunities,but it cannot compete with the culture and the spirit of ubuntu [humanity]found in his country of birth, he explains. 



“I miss good South African beer, I miss sitting on a Land Rover with no shirt on, drinking a beer. I miss the weather and the locals.” 



But wherever McCreedy goes, he ensures his prized pair of sneakers is never too far away.

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The Story Of The $3,000 Sneakers

It wasn’t your ordinary art theft. Whoever stole South African artist Conor Mccreedy’s painting of Nelson Mandela had a strange way of doing it.
Mccreedy was on his way to fetch the painting from a vault in New York. As he entered the vault he noticed a four-foot hole in the ceiling. He thought it was strange considering the ceiling was one meter thick concrete. He guessed that the company must be doing maintenance on the building. He then found a broken lock. What he saw inside stunned him.
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“There in my storage room, in place of my painting, was a pile of original photographs of Yoko Ono, John Lennon and Mick Jagger from the sixties on the Hampton River… It was like a scene out of a movie.”
Mccreedy’s painting of Mandela, along with a sketchbook of 30 drawings, were gone. A few hours later, his storage room was ringed with yellow tape.
“We had the CIA, CSI, FBI and Interpol all there. It was the first time meeting Frank Shea, my private investigator; he literally could have walked out of a movie. Shea had this comb over and perfect hair, with a perfect red tie and a pinstripe suit complete with Mont Blanc pen, like Donnie Brasco or 007. Then I thought to myself this must be a joke,” he says.
It wasn’t. No one could answer the riddle of Lennon and Jagger either. It was June and at the time Mandela was sick. Mccreedy thought the heist had something to do with hate mail, most of it from South Africa, claiming his portrait was merely jumping on the band wagon.
“People were running me down, saying I was a con. It was sad. But every time I get a negative comment my art goes up in value. Why do it if you hate my art? If you hate my childlike blue splash? It took me 27 years to do that blue splash,” he says.
The next day; it got worse. At 6AM, New York time, Mccreedy’s insurance company phoned him. The painting was insured in Africa, not New York. The only thing to do was for Mccreedy to fly back to South Africa, knock on the door of the art collector who bought the painting and buy it back with an envelope containing R100,000 ($9,280).
“It wasn’t even my favorite piece. I did it in Europe in 2008… The painting was in my trademark MccreedyBlue on a A4 canvas board, but that was it,” he says.
The robbery made headlines around the world and the story was just beginning. Interpol, the international criminal police organization, declared the missing artwork was priceless; it gave Mccreedy a claim to be the only living artist to have a painting declared priceless.
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Almost a year later, clues are as elusive as the painting itself. The artist has found a way to recoup the loss. Mccreedy is now selling 46664 replica prints, the same as Mandela’s prison number, for $100 each. Five percent goes to the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory in Johannesburg.
It’s just one of the bizarre stops along the way for Mccreedy, who was born and bred in Johannesburg and making a name for himself in New York. At school he was a talented footballer whose trademark was scoring from corner kicks. There he had a chance meeting with Mandela that changed his life.
“When I was eleven I had the opportunity to meet Mandela personally. Out of a hall filled with 600 school boys he chose to speak to me. I’ll never forget it. He said to me ‘you have powerful eyes, use them’. Mandela and Picasso are my greatest inspirations,” Mccreedy says.
New York didn’t start well for Mccreedy. He was broke and dropped out of Art College when blind chance landed his first solo exhibition.
“I bought an old third-hand Iranian carpet at a store and I needed someone to help me move it. So we went to my studio, a four-flight walk up the stairs, and the man helping me comes up and sees all this art that I’m working on, adorned on my walls, and he’s like: ‘This stuff is crazy! You know what? You’ve got to meet someone.’”
The carpet carrier knew the curator at the National Arts Club, in Manhattan, just down the road. It resulted in Mccreedy’s first ever exhibition sold out two days before the opening. What’s more his former lecturers from art school, who had written him off, came to the opening and were impressed, Mccreedy says.
These days Mccreedy is no longer a struggling artist. His art is selling from Africa to Asia. On the morning of meeting FORBES AFRICA in March, he sold a painting for $33,000.
“Art is an investment and can bring in big business. Art auctions in South Africa sell for R450 million ($42 million) a year, but I’ve seen auctions in New York sell for that in one night. People haven’t realized the opportunities art can bring,” he says.
Clearly Mccreedy has.

The Case Of  The Missing Mandela

Who would have thought that a New York removal man would help turn a budding young artist into a history maker? Well, that’s exactly what happened to South African Conor McCreedy.
A helping hand moving a carpet up to his apartment helped land McCreedy his first solo exhibition, at the National Arts Club jsut down the road—the youngest artist to do so.
“I bought an old third-hand carpet from Iran at an old vintage store and I needed someone to help me move it. So we went to my studio, a four-flight walk up the stairs, and he comes up and sees all this art that I’m working on, adorned on my walls, and he’s like: ‘Holy shit, man, this stuff is crazy! You know what? You’ve got to meet someone.’”
McCreedy moved to New York knowing no one, and having spent most of his youth between a secluded boarding school in KwaZulu-Natal and his home in the gated Melrose suburb of Johannesburg. The last thing the 2005 Hilton College alumnus, with a distinction in art, thought was that this removal man would introduce him to the president of New York’s historic NAC.
The art club, located in the Tilden Mansion in Gramercy Park New York, was founded in 1898. It has an exclusive invitation-only membership, which included three former United States presidents:  Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and Dwight D. Eisenhower. It also included some of the country’s most important artists and art patrons, such as Andy Warhol.
“I went to boarding school. I know you should never assume, but I did assume. I thought someone who is a mover is not really going to help someone in the art world. I was at a young, tender age and was a bit ignorant.
“He said: ‘You need to go to the NAC—the president of the club is waiting for you.’ So I was like, ‘What is that?’ and he said, ‘Yo, you big dummy, it’s across the street from you—it’s the most historic club in America.’”
It led to an introduction with Alden Jones Junior, NAC president. This meeting saw a solo exhibition for McCreedy, titled Outliers, in 2010.
“That really opened up doors for me; it kind of put me on the map and allowed the world to know who I was and what I was doing. It really helped a lot.”
McCreedy has moved away from styles that made his name, painting abstract animals and portraits, to creating more abstract images with his own style, painting in blues on fine linen.
“You don’t have to paint zebras and giraffes to paint Africa. South African art in New York is quite a niche market. It’s still African art, although some is being created here and some in New York. It is where I feel my proper outlet is now. You finally find your niche; mine is now in blues. Big giant pigments on Belgian linen, French linen and the finest linen you can find, and it’s this big explosion of an ocean. We live in a volatile world, so when you create these oceans, people get lost in this beautiful array of blues. And they like that because it’s kind of like what the ocean does to you.”
His change in style is not only tied to his artistic growth, but also his African roots. With an awareness of the continent’s image among many in the Western world, McCreedy wants his work to change perceptions about Africa and African art.
“I’m trying to get the Western world to understand that Africa is not as bad or poverty stricken as the world sees it. India is way worse, and the poverty in India is so bad, yet they have better investments and the right type of investments going into India, which we do not have.
“We have Bill Gates, who is sending all these mosquito nets into, let us say Malawi, for instance, which is great. But it is not the right investment because what he is doing is putting the guy in Malawi, who is making the mosquito nets right out of business, because you can’t beat something that is for free.
“And we have these advertisements; you see them all over [the world], like ‘Incredible India’—you never see ‘Astonishing Africa’ or ‘Amazing Africa’, you don’t see that.”
Conor McCreedy hopes to change all of this with his blue brush strokes.

Tag: Conor McCreedy

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

The Story Of The $3,000 Sneakers

The Case Of The Missing Mandela

Restyling Africa’s Image One Brush Stroke At A Time