Nelly's appearances on Dancing With the Stars have been as much about what shoes he's wearing as anything else — at least as far as social media is concerned. Now the rapper is putting several of his custom dancing sneakers up for auction.
According to reports, Nelly will be donating at least 10 pairs with the proceeds going to the nonprofit organization, The Teen Project, which helps rehabilitate victims of human trafficking. The collection is projected to fetch $50,000. If you're interested in copping a pair, keep your eyes out for details from The Teen Project.
Nelly began rocking the custom kicks after being banned from wearing sneakers on the show, hitting up custom footwear maker, The Shoe Surgeon, to have him create a hybrid Jordan dancing shoe.
The first Shoe Surgeon-crafted pair Nelly laced up on Dancing With the Stars was the "Black Cement" Air Jordan 3, which we originally covered below. Since then, The Shoe Surgeon has come out to reveal the process behind turning Air Jordans into dancing shoes.
"The process is unique. And this project really took me back to my shoe repair days with Daryl Fazio in Windsor, California," he told Complex. "My thought process for something like this is how do I make it the most functional, then how can I make it look good."
"I wanted the sneaker to flex and move like a dress shoe, so I had to take off the rubber outsole and rebuild the insole with a shank, then add the chrome dance sole and a heel. I wrapped the sidewall with leather and pulled it under to give it shape," he continued. "I’m grateful for my team that helped put our heads together to make it happen. I couldn’t do this alone."
The Shoe Surgeon ended up making several pairs for Nelly to wear on Dancing With the Stars, including the "Black Cement" Air Jordan 3 and the "Space Jam" Air Jordan 11.
For more background on Nelly's first appearance in a Shoe Surgeon creation, continue reading our original post below.
Nelly was on Dancing With the Stars last week and, while his Cha Cha to Earth Wind & Fire was certainly noteworthy, it was his choice in footwear that stole the show. The St. Louis native was wearing a pair of dancing heels that looked to be a Nike Air Jordan 3 upper stuck to the tooling of dancing shoes.
Of course, his whacky choice in footwear sent raptures through Twitter, where he was mostly clowned for his kicks. Nelly, who was dancing with Daniella Karagach, scored a 15 and an 18 out of 30 for his first two dances.
“They’re whack, whack, whack. They’re hating,” Nelly told US Weekly on Tuesday following the scoring which he and Karagach saw as harsh. But maybe they just weren’t feeling the J's? Check out the best reactions below.
Does he mean sick in a positive or negative sense?
Some people were feeling the shoe
While most were not
But to be honest, his dance was better than just a 15 out of 30
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