Meet Blake Barash

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Blake Barash. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Blake below.

Hi Blake, thank you so much for opening up with us about some important, but sometimes personal topics. One that really matters to us is overcoming Imposter Syndrome because we’ve seen how so many people are held back in life because of this and so we’d really appreciate hearing about how you overcame Imposter Syndrome.

Imposter syndrome is something that a lot of people talk about in podcasts, and in videos. And one common thing everyone says is that you never overcome imposter syndrome. There is always someone better and more experienced. Especially with the Internet you’re bound to see you the most talented people out there. But this actually helped me overcome imposter syndrome. Knowing that the talented experienced people out there still feel imposter syndrome gave me some comfort. The other thing that helped me is learning hard skills. As an artist, I picked up skills such as graphic design, painting, photography, videography and video editing. I noticed after some time that I was more experienced at certain things than some of my favorite artists that I looked up to. And then you begin to realize that everyone is a good at certain things, but not everything. That helps brush off the imposter syndrome.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

The Story of B Street Shoes

Blake Barash is an American sneaker artist celebrated for his intricate customizations for athletes and celebrities worldwide. Known for his bold use of color, detail, and contrast, Blake’s designs are instantly recognizable. His impressive client list includes Bruno Mars, LL Cool J, Chrissy Teigen, Mark Cuban, Halsey, Daniel Tosh, Billie Eilish, Tyler the Creator, Zedd, Bryson Tiller, the LA Chargers, Arizona Cardinals, Pittsburgh Steelers, and many more professional athletes, Olympic medalists, and world record holders. Each pair of shoes he creates is a unique personal statement.

How It All Started

In 2010, Blake was working as a Credit Analyst at a major national bank in Irvine, CA. His days were spent in a high-rise, crunching numbers and filling spreadsheets—a job with security, but little room for creativity. However, after hours, he found solace in painting and customizing clothing for friends, particularly custom hats he sold through MySpace. This side passion grew, even as platforms like Etsy and Shopify were just emerging, and online retail was in its infancy.

Transition into Shoes

That summer, a friend in Santa Monica tipped Blake off to a job with TOMS, who was seeking an artist to customize shoes. Blake sent in his portfolio, which featured his custom hats and apparel, and soon after, he was hired to paint shoes at TOMS’ “Style Your Sole” events across California. Traveling from San Diego to San Francisco, Blake fell in love with the creativity and interaction. By mid-2011, he left his bank job and fully embraced his new path.

Open for Business

Documenting his work, Blake soon discovered Etsy and listed his hand-painted sneakers online. In no time, his shoes gained traction. In his first year, Blake made more money selling custom shoes than he had in his corporate career. Custom sneaker painting was no longer a side hustle—it was his new career.

New York Times & Celebrity Clients

B Street Shoes quickly gained a cult following, and in June 2015, Blake’s work was featured in The New York Times Arts section. This exposure led to over $10,000 in sales overnight, and a flood of new followers. Celebrities like Bruno Mars, Mark Cuban, and The LA Chargers took notice. Around the same time, the NFL’s “My Cause My Cleats” campaign emerged, allowing players to wear custom cleats supporting charities. Blake and his team created custom cleats for the Chargers, which were later auctioned for charity.

Loving Life and Work

Today, instead of a cubicle, Blake begins his mornings with a surf session before heading to his “Shoedio” in Costa Mesa. With the B Street team, he spends his days creating custom sneakers, murals, and artwork that help clients tell their unique stories.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

I learned a lot along the way of my journey as a professional artist. I learned different skills that helped me along the way, and gained experienced that helped me lead on the path on the journey forward. When I boil it down to the three most important things that were most impactful on my journey, it comes down to these.

1. Patience. It can be difficult putting a lot of time and energy into something that doesn’t see returns right away. A lot of times with art and business, you have to invest money and energy into things that you don’t know will pay off or not but what I started to notice as time went on is that some of the things that I had done in the past, even years ago, started to pay off. People and companies started to contact me about projects that they had seen me do in the past. Sometimes they were personal projects, but now they were bringing in revenue. And I was thankful that I had done them. Which leads me to number two.

2. Do the work. There is a saying that goes “the magic you were looking for is in the work you are avoiding” When it comes to art, I see a lot of people wanting to be professional artist, so they sit back and wait for people to give them commissions. But they don’t have a body of work that warrants any commissions. So my advice for someone starting out in art and business, is start working, producing things, documenting the experience. Kind of like “if you build it, they will come.” Make sure that you like what you’re building, it’s easy to get distracted by money and opportunities. In the business world, they call it the lady in “the red dress.” often times opportunities can seem very appealing, but they take you away from what you should be doing. Which leads me to number three.

3. Learn to say no. A lot of people think that every millionaire has seven sources of income. And although that might be true, that’s not how they became a millionaire. Most of the time, they spent all their time doing one thing. Artists and entrepreneurs should take note of that. Stay focused and build one thing big instead of having a bunch of little things that divide your attention. When one opportunity leaves, it opens the door for another one to come into your life.

As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?

Show Your Work – this book told me that people are just as interested in seeing the process, as the end result.

Atomic Habits – this book taught me that goals are irrelevant, creating habits and integrating that into your daily schedule, is the real way to achieve things.

4 Hr Work Week – this book taught me to double down on the important things. If you’re working too much, it’s likely that the things you are doing during the day, are unimportant and can be eliminated.

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Image Credits

I took all the images

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