Jeff Hamada: Converse (PRODUCT) RED | Hypebeast

Interview with Jeff Hamada

Eugene Kan (EK): So how did the opportunity for this project originally come about?

Jeff Hamada (JH): Well I guess I would be lying if I said it had everything to do with my skill as a designer. It mostly came about because I did the friendly Canadian thing and offered to show some people around Vancouver.

EK: So basically you exchanged tour-guide services for the chance to do a shoe?

JH: Yea pretty much. My friend John asked if I would show his friends from Boston (Dana and Damion) around town. It turned out that they were both working for Converse and we really hit it off. Shortly after they returned home they contacted me about the project (Converse (PRODUCT) RED). I pretty much jumped at the opportunity. So I didn’t win some contest (many people assume this for whatever reason), I just kinda weaseled my way in there haha. Somehow I ended up being the only Canadian on the project aside from Tokyo Police Club, who are musicians.

EK: You’re a friendly guy so I don’t doubt it. Would you say this Converse project is probably among your best career highlights thus far?

JH: Yea definitely. I have wanted to work on a shoe for a long time and this project was so wide open – like I could literally do anything I wanted. There was no guarantee that it would ever see the light of day as a retail production shoe but it would tour as part of an art show, at the very least. That meant there wasn’t really any pressure. I didn’t have to worry about coming up with something that would sell or anything like that.

EK: In terms of balancing the act of creating something commercial or product-related versus creating art, are different mindsets needed? How do you approach each of them differently?

JH: I left art school and went and worked for Electronic Arts and that’s pretty much where I did most of my technical learning. I think it really affected the way I make things now. I wouldn’t say in a negative way but it really was about producing commercial work fast, and as efficiently as possible. So I got really good at emulating styles. I sat with 7 different artists and for the first 4 months and I just tried to copy everything they did. I wanted to learn as many different ways of doing things as possible.

Now when someone asks me to make something for them I go about it in a really systematic way – robotic – its just a matter of problem solving. I have the person describe in detail what it is they want and I get a picture in my mind of what that is. And then I’m done once I’ve created something as close to the image I have in my mind as possible. When I’m making art for myself it has less to do with the finished product and more to do with enjoying the actual making of the art.