Custom Sneaker Designer Dillon DeJesus turns ordinary shoes into works of art. We talk sneaker art, creating custom sneakers that sell for thousands and the greatest shoes of all time. Then, we countdown the Top 5 Worst Places to Wait in Line.

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Interview with Sneaker Artist Dillon DeJesus

Nick VinZant 0:12

Welcome to Profoundly Pointless. My name is Nick VinZant Coming up in this episode, custom shoes, and long lines.

Dillon DeJesus 0:21

So this is just such a fun time in my life looking back on when I really got into sneakers. Unfortunately for a lot of artists, I think it takes a long time to turn it into a business, I think it can be hard, knowing what it was like being a younger artist, it's easy to want to throw in the towel, to have no idea how you're going to do certain things to look at artists, other artists that you look up to, and just constantly think, how do they make this look so easy.

Nick VinZant 0:49

I want to thank you so much for joining us. If you get a chance, subscribe, leave us a rating or review, we really appreciate it really helps us out. If you're a new listener, welcome to the show. If you're a longtime listener, thank you so much for all of your support. So our first guest designs and creates custom sneakers. But these aren't just shoes. These are works of art. This is sneaker artist, Dylan de Zuse. So what is it about shoes? What is it about him that got your attention,

Dillon DeJesus 1:24

being a Chicago guy like myself, you know, the Jordan, basketball sports were just a part of the culture. And when I was in high school is when I really got into just collecting sneakers, just the love for sneakers. When I sort of got that first job in high school started to finally, you know, make a little bit of money for yourself, what do you want to spend it on. And for me, it was just on shoes, it was collecting rare shoes and staying up to date on, you know what was coming out. And this was just such a fun time in my life. Because this is really before social media became what it is now. And this is still in like the blog era. Yeah, the original places. Yeah, places like Nike talk, and forums. And there's just none of that nowadays, it's just not the same. And we're just so inundated with so many constant updates and stuff. But before you used to have to look into things like magazines and all of this other stuff. And so it's just such a fun time in my life looking back on when I really got into sneakers. And that's sort of how I landed here. Just the love for it. I went to college to study architecture, started taking some painting classes in college. And I said, You know what, I see some people online doing this whole painting shoe thing to make something rare, you know, make something one of one for themselves. And I said, You know what, I've taken a couple painting classes. Let's see what I can do if I throw some paint at some shoes.

Nick VinZant 2:55

Now, is this shoe? Is a shoe a hard thing to kind of customize? Or is it pretty easy? Like when you look at painting other kinds of mediums? Is a shoe easy? Or is it difficult to do?

Dillon DeJesus 3:06

Shoes are a pretty tricky Canvas in and of themselves. Because there's a lot of different materials. As much as you might think it's an entirely blank canvas. It's not because certain materials really shouldn't be painted certain parts of shoes, you have to treat differently. And so I do think that you know they are they take some know how to really do them well, but at the same time, it's fun, because I just don't think there's another piece of clothing or fashion where you can make as much of a statement with Wearable art like you can with shoes.

Nick VinZant 3:39

Is that really the attraction? You think is the idea of kind of you can customize this it's wearable art? Is that what gets people into it?

Dillon DeJesus 3:47

Yeah, I think so. I think you know, there's a lot of people like myself, who just have a general love for shoes and custom sneakers have really started to become a part of the culture within the sneaker industry over the last decade or so. And so now even if you have no interest in custom shoes, just paying attention to you know, some of the you know, current sneaker blogs, however they're around nowadays, you still end up seeing some of this stuff, you still start to see certain sneaker customizers who have really implanted themselves as figures within the industry. So anybody who's you know, really into shoes has certainly at least heard about it. And so I think that that's why a lot of people do tend to want to get started to create something one on one for themselves so that they can stand out from the crowd.

Nick VinZant 4:36

What was the first shoe you Did you remember? Yeah, so

Dillon DeJesus 4:40

the first shoe that I did would be a shoe that was inspired by the South Beach LeBrons. So LeBron went to Miami in 2010 and shortly after that, he would have been on his eighth Nike basketball sneakers. They released a colorway called the South Beach colorway with him going to Miami it and it was inspired by, you know, the Miami Vice show, so steel and hot pink. And it was a really rare exclusive shoe and being a broke college student at the time, I couldn't afford to get the shoes. But in the early days of custom sneakers, what people were doing was taking colorways like the South Beach LeBron and painting them on to simpler, cheaper models, so that you could essentially have something that was meant to symbolize that borrower rare or exclusive pair. So that's how I got started. And that's really what custom sneaker was, you know, the the entire industry for the first few years of me doing it, there was definitely people who were creating your theme shoes, your Ironman shoes, you know your Hulk shoes, but that was way way, way less common than it is nowadays. Originally, it was about recreating other colorways from more exclusive shoes on to cheaper, easier to find Nike models.

Nick VinZant 5:57

But could people like No, would people be able to tell like, Hey, man, like I know, you just kind of you pay it out? Those aren't the real Totally.

Dillon DeJesus 6:04

Totally. Yeah, I mean, you know, we would do a LeBron shoe, which is very much it looks like an on court basketball sneaker, and paint that on to a Jordan and as weird as it is. Jordan shoes, almost they don't look anywhere near what the last 20 years of on court basketball sneakers look like. Like if you just compare the look of Jordan shoes, his first 20 sneaker models to LeBron who's coming up on his 20th sneaker model. There's not a they don't look anything alike. Just the technology and stuff has advanced so much. So that's why you know, people could certainly spot it. But at the same time it was Oh, that's really cool. You were trying to recreate that very rare colorway. And do it on a simpler shoe. You know,

Nick VinZant 6:54

so how pop okay, I know this is kind of a hard thing to like gauge, right? But how popular would you say this is? Right? So 100% of people own shoes. 10% are doing customized 20%? Like 1%? Like how, how popular would you say that it is?

Dillon DeJesus 7:12

Of all people that are into shoes? I would say less than 5%? Yeah, I mean, somewhere between one to 5% not a not a huge minority, or majority Excuse me,

Nick VinZant 7:24

but enough that it's still like on the grand scale extrapolated throughout the nation, like there's still a lot of people.

Dillon DeJesus 7:30

Definitely, definitely there still is. And like I said, you can't help but if you follow sneaker pages that post sneaker release dates and sneaker news and this type of stuff, you can't help but see it and come across it, especially because it's just really popular within, you know, sports athletes are wearing custom shoes on NBA courts on NFL fields. And so more and more people are just hearing about it. But I can still walk down the street into the grocery store, have conversation with somebody, what do you do 995 out of 100 times they would you know they would unless they are into shoes, say painting on shoes. That's the thing. People make a career out of that you know what I mean? And I've been doing it a long time. And they're still, you know, if I'm just an Uber with somebody and you're talking back and forth with your driver, there's a good chance they've probably never heard of people painting and cheese.

Nick VinZant 8:24

Soda. Most people do it as a hobby, or is this kind of a what's the word that I'm looking for a business for most people are a little bit of both a

Dillon DeJesus 8:35

little bit of both. I think it's something that has to start as a hobby, of course, because it takes a while. Like like a lot of things. I'm sure it takes a while to really conquer and master. And unfortunately for a lot of artists, I think it takes a long time to turn it into a business, I think it can be hard to turn it into something profitable. And there's a sort of a big picture narrative, I think going on within the industry that somebody might take a look at something like this and just see an Air Force One, okay. Now, an Air Force One is a shoe that for many, many years has been $100. Okay, so when they see this, regardless of what's on here, that's $100 shoe. So to then convince somebody to pay $1,000 for $2,000 for it, or even a couple 100 They can't help but have that price point in their head of oh, well, that was just originally $100 shoe. They're not really it's starting to change. But not as many people are able to really just view it as an art piece. You know, if you were purchasing a canvas from somebody, like a half year of one of a Chicago artist did have my wife, you're not asking how much the canvas cost? You know what I mean? You're not, you know, if Picasso paints on a piece of paper, and are wondering how much you paid for the piece of paper, you have a Picasso piece in front of you, you know what I mean? So I think that that's a narrative that myself and others have really tried to help shift within the industry over the last half decade or so. It takes a while to make money doing this so that you can push past people just thinking of it as, okay, that's $100 shoe. It's a little bit cooler than what I could purchase at the mall, if they were to release a, you know, a special limited edition colorway. But I can't pay 10 times the normal price for it. You know what I mean? Yeah.

Nick VinZant 10:25

I don't know if this question will make sense, because I don't really know anything about art. But hopefully it'll kind of like, you'll get the gist of what I'm asking. Do you think that like sneaker art? Can it raise to the level of high art, where it's like saying something about society? Or about relationships? Or about whatever, you know, like you look at a painting and you feel a certain way about something? Can sneakers do that? Or is it's at the level of like, Oh, that looks cool.

Dillon DeJesus 10:54

Totally, no, I really think they can. And over the last few years, there's been more opportunities for people within my industry of popping up in different galleries in certain galleries, celebrating the history of custom sneakers, having an entire installations dedicated to just artists from all around the world. And so the more that we can be seen as not just shoes, but art, the better for everybody. And that's where I think you'll really start to see more and more people who aren't just into, you know, collecting shoes and wanted to have a rare exclusive colorway. But people have been artists, their whole lives, working on shoes to tell their story for the first time. And that's happening more and more, I think.

Nick VinZant 11:37

So kind of like getting into the process of it. Like, how do you do it? I said, Yeah,

Dillon DeJesus 11:43

right. Yeah. So everybody's process is different. You know what I mean? I think one of my big picture goals, as an artist is to really be able to tackle anything that comes my way. So around the same time that I really got started with shoes. Funny enough, I feel like I owe my entire artistic journey to a TV show called income Master. I'm not sure if you're familiar with it, but it's to competition. Okay. And so that started around the time, when I had been doing this maybe a year or so I think it premiered maybe 2011 2012. And I feel I learned more about the things that I implement every single day than truly anything in life as crazy as that sounds, the impact that that show has had on me. And it's so funny, because what I really enjoyed about the show is, you know, they would start with maybe 15 to 20 people and week by week, artists would get eliminated until, you know, there was a big showdown with the final three. And so as somebody who watched the show, as it aired, you would see the premiere episode with 20 people. And right away, I would watch it with my girlfriend at the time now wife, little brother, and we would pick which artist we thought really stood out in the beginning. And I think that that person can go all the way and look at what he did on day one. And let's check them out on Instagram and see what he's been doing. And it's so funny, because I think we watched you know, I have no idea what season they're even on now, I think 12 or 13, or something. Never once did I come close to predicting correctly, because I would always pick the artist on day one that I think would win who was the strongest at their own style. And so you would have absolutely incredible new school artist, or absolutely incredible, traditional black and gray who just wild the piece that they did would blow you away. But as the weeks would go by, and there would be new challenges that black and gray tattoo artist, then when the competition's halfway done would all of a sudden have to do a comic book style tattoo or a new school tattoo and do something he's not that familiar with. And all of a sudden that artists who had been rooting for who I thought was going to go all the way because he was knocking out the first few challenges when he got to do his thing would get eliminated. And what I started to take away after a few seasons, and what the judges would say as well on the tattoo show is you need to be able to handle any tattoo that comes in your shop. So over time as I was trying to develop a style as an artist because I'm not a formally trained artist by any means. I realized I want to be able to handle anything that comes my way and put my stamp on it. I don't ever want to have to turn somebody away, because I don't have the ability to do it. I don't want somebody who maybe wants a portrait to not be able to get it from me because I don't know how to do portraits or somebody who wants something really simple to not be able to get from me, you know, because I only do crazy over the top. super colorful, textured work. I want to be able to handle anything that comes my way. So I don't have just one signature style, I like to be able to do anything that comes my way. And so I want somebody to be able to look at my work, and who might be familiar with it to really start to recognize over time as they see more and more pieces. Oh, yeah, that does look like a piece that was done by Dylan dazes. You know what I mean? I want all of the pieces to eventually have some similarities between them. So sorry, this is a really long answer to that question. All right, my process is, I like to first have a consultation, you know, with a potential client and really get a feel for what they're trying to have done. And then my process is really just starting to play with things in Photoshop, really just starting to play with, you know, the balance of colors. So for example, if I'm doing a, I'm a Chicago guy. So if I'm doing a Chicago bear shoe, just really starting to balance out how much navy blue I want to do, how much orange I want to do get a feel for them? Are they looking for a really loud, orange shoe? Or are they looking for something more subtle, with you know, a lot more of that navy blue. And, you know, really just try to get a feel for how loud and over the top, I'm going to go because I like to turn the dial all the way up to start and then get feedback from them. Okay, let's turn it down a little bit. But I want the pieces that I do to truly stand out and be something unique. So first, I'll let the clients are to tell me let's tame it down a little I'm on something a little more subtle, and go from there. So I do start with a good general concept of I'm really just trying to get a feel for the balance of the overall colors and stuff. placement of where I might do logos, you know what I mean? Do I want to do something big on the toes, when you look at the shoes from directly above. Or if somebody's looking at the shoes from behind you when the two heels are placed together? Do I want there to be some type of meaning, you know, when the shoes are placed side by side, just really starting to play for different stuff like that. But I think that my style in the art itself really comes with time and playing with it. So even though I do like to put together a general markup that just has like a bit of a balance between the colors, I don't always like to stay completely true to it. Sometimes I just like to let you know, sort of the canvas speak to me or let things flow as I actually start to get into the painting and whatnot.

Nick VinZant 17:27

From the technical aspects of it, like what kind of paint do you use? Like, how do you even do it?

Dillon DeJesus 17:32

Yeah, so there is a brand out in California called Angelus leather paint, excuse me, that's the name of the product, they are just called Angeles. And they've been around for almost 100 years really started off with leather dyes and things like that, as you know, as shoes have really evolved over time, but shoe dyes shoe polish, and things like that is what they started with. And then they built a paint line over time that works with leather material. And I would say, I don't know, 80% of the shoes that I work on are primarily leather. And they have a few different additives if you're working on things like fabrics, meshes, prime minutes of that type of

Nick VinZant 18:12

stuff. So how long does it look like? How long will it take you generally,

Dillon DeJesus 18:16

I always compare that in a way to how long does it take to take? So it really depends out? Yeah, depending on what I mean. Generally speaking, usually between 20 to 50 hours for a lot of my pieces, there's probably not a ton of stuff that you see from me that's under 10 hours or so. So it is a lengthy process to do to do it right, you know,

Nick VinZant 18:39

now, will every single one of them be different? Or do you kind of have like, this is my this for this. And I might make 10 or 15? Or however many of those are is every single one? No, like this is one of one every single time

Dillon DeJesus 18:52

you know, the answer to that one has really changed over time. Nowadays, it's pretty much all one of one. But I've tried every, you know, release style on the book. So hey, I'm going to be releasing 10 of the shoes come September 1. So everybody who's interested, you know, start marking your calendars and come September 1, I'm going to be releasing 10 After they sell out, I'm never going to be making them again, things like that. I've tried it all. And now for the last probably five years or so it's been predominantly just one on one work unless I'm doing big, you know, corporate orders or things like that, where they're trying to purchase, you know, a lot of the similar style at the same time,

Nick VinZant 19:33

how much you sell them for, can we can I just straight up ask you that or is that?

Dillon DeJesus 19:36

Totally. Yeah, no, totally. Yeah. So you know, kind of like the a similar answer to how long does it take? There's a there's a very wide range. Yeah, for the most part, generally speaking, a lot of issues are usually going to be between 1500 to 2000. And that's for a lot of the one on one stuff that can take you know, anywhere from like I said 25 to 50 hours.

Nick VinZant 20:00

most expensive one,

Dillon DeJesus 20:02

the most expensive shoe that I've sold would have been, huh. I think 2400 would have been the most expensive one,

Nick VinZant 20:14

even though that sounds like a lot. But then when you think about it, like, Oh, if that's taken you 20 hours,

Dillon DeJesus 20:20

100 hours. That was, this was 100 hour pair. So it's, it's really, really hard to look at this on an on an hourly wage. Yeah, type scale as an artist, it's, it's always something that a lot of people like to do, because so much of the rest of the world works on an hourly wage. But you really can't always just factor that in as an artist, because yeah, it's not hopefully, hopefully what takes you 10 hours today, down the line, you can scale that time in half, and start and be able to charge more, because that took you a few years to become that much more efficient. So now hopefully, your products even better. But what's what's funny about the, my response to that is, even though I certainly have become more efficient over time, you also start to nitpick yourself 10 times harder. So you have so much more of a trained eye than you do when you're first starting out. So you know, something that maybe used to take me let's just say 10 hours, let's just call that something simple, even 10 years ago, now, that might still take me 10 hours, because I'm nitpicking it so much more, you know what I mean in in finding a way to make sure it's a million times more perfect than it was 10 years ago. So it's funny because even though you become more efficient, there's definitely a trade off that you start to nitpick yourself even more.

Nick VinZant 21:43

Are you ready for some harder slash listener submitted questions? Let's do it easiest pair of shoes to work with hardest pair of shoes to work with.

Dillon DeJesus 21:53

Easiest pair of shoes to work with would be a pair of Nike Roche ones, which was a much popular shoe. About a half decade ago. Like in 2016 2017 2018, it was pretty much an all mesh upper, and meshes even easier to paint than leather. So it was just a really fun silhouette that everybody was working on for a few years. Unfortunately, the shoe just fell out of favor over the last three, four years. So there's just nobody doing them anymore. But had a lot of fun working on those. And hardest shoe to work on would be probably something like a Jordan four. Because it just has a ridiculous amount of materials. Depending on the color that you get. There's such crazy contours of the shoe. It's a it's a fabulous silhouette to do certain themes with. But at the same time, it would be an absolute nightmare for a beginner to start with the shoe like that, because of all the different materials because of how not straightforward it is to just plan out the design. And so it's just a really, really tricky one to do, right?

Nick VinZant 23:06

Is there a shoe that would be like, Oh, I'd love to do that. But it's just too difficult. Like you couldn't, you can't do that with this kind of shoe.

Dillon DeJesus 23:12

I feel like I run into that a lot with Jordan force because of the way the the shoe was built. There's no large areas to do big logos and things like that. There's just, it's just this shoe that has all of these panels on top of each other. And there's even a part for anybody who's not too familiar with the shoes, there's something called the wings on the shoe. So it's just all these interconnected pieces that really make it a unique silhouette. But it's just a truly tricky one to work on and nail.

Nick VinZant 23:45

Oh, I'm looking at it now that does look like it's got all kinds of stuff all over it.

Dillon DeJesus 23:50

It's busy. It's busy. It

Nick VinZant 23:52

is busy. Yeah. Yeah. Whoa, did that come out? Because that looks like an 80s 99 shoe ad. Yeah,

Dillon DeJesus 23:59

right. Yep. 89

Nick VinZant 24:01

Can I go jump aside and say that I think the best shoe of all time is those Jordans that had like the black shiny leather on the bottom? Do you notice because the base

Dillon DeJesus 24:09

damn ones are those the space to those other ones that he wore in spaceships. So that's called the if I'm, if I'm right, and what you're probably talking about that would be the Jordan 11. So that's when he won. Oh

Nick VinZant 24:22

yeah,

Dillon DeJesus 24:23

the 72 and 10 bulls that's the shoe he's wearing during that year. You might be talking about like the bread colorway which is black and red and white. But the one that he wore in the Space Jam movie was all black with a white midsole and it had like a royal blue jump.

Nick VinZant 24:38

What What would you consider to be the best shoe like what is your personal favorite shoe?

Dillon DeJesus 24:43

My favorite shoe of all time would be the Jordan three and the black cement colorway. So the Jordan three is what he wore when he won the slam dunk contest and jump from the free throw line. So that's a super iconic shoe for sure.

Nick VinZant 24:57

Oh that is kind of a cool shoe. That's I feel like correct me if I'm wrong here. I feel like that's the kind of shoe that sneaker heads. Is that still a word? Yeah. Okay. Right. You can see how old I'm getting, like people say stool. Do people still say cool? Like, it's cool. I'm still,

Dillon DeJesus 25:18

you're still in?

Nick VinZant 25:20

That looks like the kind of shoe that like sneaker heads would love. But maybe regular people and air quotes like, oh, that's, I don't know if that's totally an issue.

Dillon DeJesus 25:30

Totally. It's funny when I got into shoes, you know. And I started to look up all the Jordan models and silhouettes and started thinking to myself, you sort of hear which ones are popular online. And this is coming from somebody who just sort of growing up, which is wearing vans, simpler shoes. But then when I just started to dive into this world, it was interesting how different they were than just, you know, growing up, I didn't feel like I said, collect Jordans or anything like that I had your very basic simple shoes, your staples. And it was so interesting seeing these for the first time because at first glance when you've never seen anything like it almost like your response there that's that's kind of unique. That's that's kind of different. I can see how people that are into sneakers like it. But for your average Joe, that might be sort of a weird looking shoe, that's not something that they would gravitate towards, you know,

Nick VinZant 26:27

this leads me into this question, how do you feel about white New Balance is that older generations where?

Dillon DeJesus 26:34

Man, you gotta love them, whatever, what it built for comfort? You know what I mean? built for comfort, whatever works for you and your feet, you know,

Nick VinZant 26:41

do you think that you'll ever hit that age where you just buy the same shoe over and over again?

Dillon DeJesus 26:47

Oh, totally, totally. As I've become a as I've become a dad, and, you know, just gotten busier with the business and I work from home, there's way less time spent on me worrying about collecting shoes and whatnot. And now it's grab and go and things got to be a lot quicker. So

Nick VinZant 27:05

what's the hardest part of the shoe itself to kind of design easiest part of the shoe,

Dillon DeJesus 27:12

the hardest part of the shoe to design, I think I would have to say would be I think if you're worried about the long term durability of the shoe, which somebody who's creating a wearable piece of art is the hardest part of the shoe to design would be the areas where it's most likely to crease. And so those are the areas where you're a lot more susceptible to things like paint chipping and whatnot. So sometimes you need to find the right shoe where you may not need to paint certain areas, you can keep those as part of the factory design and still just sort of interweave your design throughout there. So that would be the hardest part because you have to just really factor that in. That takes away some of the ability to just treat it like a blank canvas but the easiest part of the shoe to design boy easiest part of the shoe to design I don't know that's tricky to answer.

Nick VinZant 28:14

Does does it vary a lot by shoe like Oh, have you got a Nike you know, you're gonna be able to do this here Reebok, is this here Adidas, is this here? Or is the shoes like not that much of a factor?

Dillon DeJesus 28:27

There's definitely there's definitely some you know, similarities across the entire spectrum of things certain brands are going to use higher quality materials the more expensive shoes you work with are typically you know going to be built better in a lot of cases and so yeah, I think the hardest part or the the easiest part to design would be I don't know the the cop out answer would be the laces but that's not really something you have to design but that's always the the last step and that's kind of fun to do.

Nick VinZant 29:01

What do you have to do with the laces? Do you just die um,

Dillon DeJesus 29:03

you just get to you get to pick any color you want or die um if you have a really specific shade of color that you need or I have an entire lace wall over here with 1000s of laces so whatever project I'm on I can head on over and I should be able to find something that fits for the given theme.

Nick VinZant 29:19

Do people still say what are those? What's your favorite shoe insult like somebody's shoes man what do you say?

Dillon DeJesus 29:28

The what are those was big fur was was was real big for a couple of years there I feel like that was that was definitely a point in sneaker lore history that it'll be hard to top that one so I think that that one is still that's the first one that comes to my mind when you ask you know what's your favorite sneaker and salt for sure.

Nick VinZant 29:52

Even I even that got to like my level of like, right,

Dillon DeJesus 29:55

right back. It

Nick VinZant 29:57

was fun and be fun.

Dillon DeJesus 29:58

There was the The Damn Daniel one for anybody who's wearing vans, there was a video that went around, maybe 2017 ish. And it was a couple kids at high school and every day, he'd go up to his friend and he'd say, Damn Daniel, and he had he was wearing vans every day. And that became something you would say to anybody out on the street wearing vans

Nick VinZant 30:19

is they're kind of like an untapped part of the shoe industry in the sense like, alright, a lot of people do in Jordans body people do in vans? Like, is anybody doing Crocs or something like that? Right? Is there like the next shoe that's gonna get this kind of treatment?

Dillon DeJesus 30:36

Yeah, so the hard part about crocs is their rubber rubber is pretty much impossible to paint and keep durable. So unfortunately, there's not a ton of custom painted cracks where I know crocs is really the way that they've added their customization is through people adding the charms onto their shoes. You know, picking your favorite characters, teams, whatever. little knickknacks that you put on there. So that's what they've done. In terms of other untapped markets. I mean, you know, no shoe you know, there's there's a slogan that a lot of people say that within my industry, then no shoe is safe. You know what I mean? And so every shoe can can head into somebody's cut into somebody's shoe do and get get the right treatment.

Nick VinZant 31:25

That's a good part of lingo man shoe. Do. I like that? Yeah. Celebrity with the best style. Who do you think's like, oh, that's the best celebrity sneaker head. I can't say the word sneaker head. I feel like a poser.

Dillon DeJesus 31:40

It's the first one that comes to mind just because just for everything he's done has to be Kanye. And his impact on the industry. I mean, he got his first Nike deal. Gosh, I don't know what year maybe 2009 2010, he released two silhouettes with Nike that were just absolutely ginormous. Then he signed a mega deal with Adidas, where he's had multiple different shoes. And he's somebody who's just had a huge impact on fashion sneaker culture. Some other rapidfire celebrities that I know have just had immaculate sneaker game over the years would be the rapper walay he probably has one of the craziest sneaker collections ever. Fat Joe. DJ Khaled. I mean, he gets his own Jordan colorways. J Balvin. has done a lot. In the last few years, he's had quite a few different Jordan collabs. So those are some of the quick ones that come to mind.

Nick VinZant 32:45

Are so looking at I pulled up some of your, your Instagram page looking at some of your shoes. So tell me about these man, that looks like a lot of work.

Dillon DeJesus 32:55

Yeah, so this was made for a YouTube video where we have a series called recreating your design. And so what we do is we open up the floor for our viewers, subscribers, and just fans of sneakers to design a shoe that then I'll try to recreate. So we had a few 100 entries for this project. And what we did is we set up almost like a March Madness style bracket where then our our followers and whatnot could vote on who would be the winner and the winning shoe, I would then try to recreate somebody else's design. So that's why I think this falls in line with what I talked about earlier is I like to not have one signature style, but I want to be able to handle anything that comes my way. And I think that this series, and this concept behind this piece really falls in line with that. So it's somebody else's design, to where now I have to get in their head, and try to think of how would you bring this design to life. So when I first saw the mock up for this piece, I thought, oh boy, where do you even begin on something like this? If you just if you just think of this as an all white shoe truly where do you start because of how busy it is and how much color there is and how many stencils are going to go into a piece like this. And so it was really interesting for me to try to reverse engineer things, so I can see the final product. And I know what we're going to be starting with an all white shoe. But you know, what's that journey going to be? Like? What are the steps we're gonna need to take to get there. So it was really challenging, but really fun to do. And I think that the end result came out just so amazing, something that I'm so proud of with, with how they turned out and I love that one of my favorite pieces that I've done was designed by somebody else, but I just had to have the technical know how to bring it to life. So I think that that's a lot of you know, what we sort of try to teach to you know, our students who attend our or courses and whatnot. And a lot of the techniques that we talked about on YouTube, really just being flexible and being able to break things down and visualize them and try to take the right steps to figure out what you're going to do next. Because I think that knowing what it was like being a younger artist, it's easy to want to throw in the towel, to have no idea how you're going to do certain things to look at artists, other artists that you look up to, and just constantly think, how do they make this look so easy? You know, how does everything that they do seems like it comes so natural to them, I know that that was what I was thinking when I was starting out. So it takes a long time to develop a process and to be confident in knowing that you're going to be able to figure something out like this just seeing the end product.

Nick VinZant 35:47

It looks it reminds me of like Saved by the Bell. Wired, Fresh Prince of Bel Air.

Dillon DeJesus 35:54

Yep. Yep. Just the 90s. You know, just just the nice, yeah, the you know, whether it's the cups or the, you know, the decor that you would see in Target or whatnot, just yeah, just pure 90s nostalgia, you know what I mean? So you're

Nick VinZant 36:08

now you're using a stencil on top of the shoe and then painting it or how does that work?

Dillon DeJesus 36:13

Yeah, so for this piece, a lot of it is stenciling, you know, to get a lot of the shapes and whatnot. All of those fun triangles and squares that you'll see. All of that does get stencils rather than hand painted. I'm somebody who likes to use stencils in my pieces to try to make them as clean and factory looking as possible. And I found that I'm able to get closer to that look using a stencil rather than just free handing everything. Yeah, like a ton of great artists do. But you know, I'm somebody who likes to use all the tools at my disposal. So I use stencils on a lot of my pieces.

Nick VinZant 36:50

Holy crap, man. That is a level of artistic detail that I would not think that you would be able to get onto.

Dillon DeJesus 37:00

Yeah, so if there was any shoe where I was, I was like to make the funny joke if if aliens were to invaders, which, who knows, and I had to show them a shoe, I had to show them a shoe to impress them, otherwise, they're going to destroy the entire planet. I think this is likely what I would try to show them from my catalogue, at least, you know. And it's funny because I'm not somebody who's a avid fan of anime. And this was a part of a gallery in Paris last year, where there was eight artists from the USA matched up against eight artists from France in an animate battle. And so an artist from the USA was matched up with one from France. And they both had to do their take on a given anime. So I was the captain of Team USA, and I was matched up with captain of Team France. And we were given the theme Dragon Ball and we got to do anything we wanted from the source material. And it was really cool, because almost all of the other participants, I think, all 16 Besides myself, were big anime fans. So I knew that I had to really live up to the task of knocking out a piece that was going to live up to what I knew everybody else was going to do, since they were such fans of the source material, all of the shoes that they do they live and breathe, you know, anime style pairs. So this was one where I said, Okay, you know, I can't, I can't leave any stone left unturned with what I'm going to do. So to paint four characters on the side of one shoe, is at that scale was incredibly time consuming. This was easily 100 to 100 I lost count, so 100 to 150 hour piece, probably. And so on one shoe I went with sort of like a good versus evil concept. So on the left shoe here, it's the four different stages of Goku. And then I think on the right shoe, it was four of the sort of the main villains from dry Oh, yeah, you could see there so freezes sell Majin boo. And yeah, that was that was the theme behind them.

Nick VinZant 39:12

How do you keep like, I would think that that Canvas necessarily the shoe, like when you press down on it, I would think that it'd be moving around on you.

Dillon DeJesus 39:21

How do you it is it is Oh yeah, totally especially because Jordan one has a lot of those different panels and stuff so it's just getting familiar with holding those everyday for years. You know, it's just that ends up being what you're used to working on. I'm more used to working on a surface that moves like that than I am just working on a flat canvas you know, like a traditional artist

Nick VinZant 39:42

that's really good man. Like I don't know anything about sneakers or art but like damn, like that looks like a computerized done you know like the detail the way

Dillon DeJesus 39:51

all that's the goal. That's the goal. It's fucking awesome.

Nick VinZant 39:55

Um, so like, when you do when you do you know a shoe like this Is it easier to do a more what I would call like a simpler shoe like a football cleat? Or is this more difficult?

Dillon DeJesus 40:10

football cleats are a lot of fun. And it's something that I'm glad I get to work on for a good four or five months of the year we're super busy with with NFL season, which is quickly approaching here in the fall. And what's interesting is the cleat that you have pulled up is something that's all one solid panel. And so it's a totally different Canvas than if you're working on something, you know, like a Jordan five that we have here where there's, you know, 1210 different panels stretched across the entire shoe. So just the way that you have to go about designing them is totally different. And they end up being aside from getting familiar with working on the different material, they end up being a little bit easier to work on, in my opinion, since you're working on one. It's not a flat surface all the way around, but one continuous surface. Whereas so much of what you know people who are into customizing shoes end up working on things like your Air Force ones, your Jordan ones, they just have so many different panels where you have to work on each panel separately, unless you have one continuous design cleats present a totally different challenge if it being one continuous surface. So this was made for the NFL is my cause my cleats that's the one week per year where every player is allowed to wear a pair with no restrictions and they're meant to be a part of a charity. So this was the Boys and Girls Club of South Florida. I can't even remember which one is River region, but that could be like River region. Okay, got any? Yeah. Yep. So they pick a charity or an organization that they want to represent. And then we get to do a fun pair of cleats inspired by it. So just a Boys and Girls Club. You know, I thought back to being a little kid playing with Hot Wheels and stuff like that. So I thought let's trick them out with some cool flames and do the colorway that they had for this Boys and Girls Club. So that's what we have here.

Nick VinZant 42:07

So do people actually were?

Dillon DeJesus 42:09

Absolutely I would say over time a lot of my pieces have eventually and just finding that specific clientele it ends up being people that are treating them more as art pieces and they're going to be displayed and things like that. But certainly there's there's a huge market of people that are into collecting custom shoes and wearing custom shoes and that's what a lot of our you know our YouTube videos are and how to actually make wearable custom shoes.

Nick VinZant 42:38

That's pretty much all the questions we got man's anything we think we missed or working people kind of learn more about you find out what you're doing.

Dillon DeJesus 42:46

Yeah, so you could check us out on YouTube at the Hey Zeus custom footwear. We have, I think around 225,000 ish subscribers. I think I've done almost 300 videos, tons of behind the scenes stuff of what's going on here in the studio Tips and Tricks tutorials. I have a few different series called reviewing your customs where I'll review other sneaker artists shoes, critique them give general feedback, things like that. And our Instagram is going to be the same at the Hayes's custom footwear. We have a three day sneaker course that we do here in Chicago called the DCF experience. We just hosted our fifth one. Our sixth one probably won't be till next spring, if I had to guess as of now, but if anybody's ever interested in learning more about the craft and getting some hands on training, you can check that out at a hazy sync.com

Nick VinZant 43:40

I want to thank Dylan so much for joining us if you want to connect with him. We have linked to him on our social media sites. We're Profoundly Pointless on Tik Tok, Instagram and YouTube. And we've also included his information in the episode description. If you want to see more of the shoes that he creates. The YouTube version of this episode will be live on August 24 at 4:30pm Pacific. Okay, now let's bring in John Shaw and get to the pointless part of the show. Um, what article of clothing are you most sensitive about? Like, Oh, I hate it when I get this dirty. Or when this doesn't fit. You know, I'm

John Shull 44:22

pretty picky about my shirts. Like what part

Nick VinZant 44:26

of the shirt? Are you picky about cleanliness fit? What does it

John Shull 44:30

fit like because I'm a bigger guy, especially up top so like, you know if it's it needs to be a comfortable fit or I'm going to be self conscious out in public. So it needs to be of coming from a guy used to wear medium T shirts though. I also like I don't like I have to have a certain kinds of sock. Can't be like a long Sakis just to be an ankle sock.

Nick VinZant 44:52

You don't like people to be able to see your socks.

John Shull 44:55

No I don't actually if I if I could get away with like where wearing socks but not ever having to put them on. Like, if there was just a sock, always on my foot, I'd probably be okay with that.

Nick VinZant 45:07

I'm most sensitive, I think about T shirts, shirts, actually, but specifically the collar of a shirt. I hate a loose collar on a shirt. That drives me nuts. I hate a bad collar on a shirt.

John Shull 45:20

I've never understood people that wear clothes with holes. And like bacon neck on purpose. If you don't know bacon act as is essentially what you just described. It looks like a piece of well done bacon. But as a collar.

Nick VinZant 45:32

Oh, I don't like bacon neck. Wait a minute, though. If it's just from sweat, or if you've been like working in it all day. That's different. But if it's like just oh, he's got bacon neck, and you just put that on? I'm throwing that shirt away.

John Shull 45:49

Like, let me put it this way. If if you haven't been working, and you have means to buy a shirt that doesn't have a hole in it, and doesn't have bacon neck, but you choose to do so. You have no respect, in my opinion. I have no respect for you. Because of that.

Nick VinZant 46:07

What about going to the gym? Because I have several shirts that have holes in them that I wear to the gym? I

John Shull 46:12

mean, that's fine. I mean, you're working those holes didn't get there by themselves? Or maybe they never.

Nick VinZant 46:19

Yeah, I think they kind of did. I don't really ever know how I get holes in shirts. It's like always a mystery. Like, how did that happen?

John Shull 46:27

I get them in the same spot the armpit. I'm like, How does this happen? Are my arms rubbing together?

Nick VinZant 46:32

Do you think it's just your sweat? Like, there's just so much sweat. It goes through the shirt? Like how do you get a hole in the armpit first?

John Shull 46:41

I don't know. I'd actually don't for a big person or a bigger person. I still don't sweat as much as I think I should have. Or I should maybe you

Nick VinZant 46:50

don't drink enough water. What? Okay, what if you could get rid of one article of clothing entirely? Like you would never have to wear this again? What would you get rid of?

John Shull 47:00

That's easy underwear.

Nick VinZant 47:03

You can do that. Now though. That's arguably the article of clothing you can get away with man or woman not wearing right now.

John Shull 47:11

I mean, if you're asking for like a, I guess an essential everyday clothing item that I I could get rid of. I need to be honest, I don't really think I need to wear pants all the time.

Nick VinZant 47:25

I would get rid of pants. I hate pants. Like I don't like to have my ankle to knee covered generally. I like that flowing out. Freedom down there.

John Shull 47:38

I just for some reason, I don't have a lot of sensation below my thighs. So I can wear shorts in the winter. Obviously I wear them in the summer. I just pants. I'm just not I don't know if if my boss has to come to me and say, John, you don't have to wait for more bands to work anymore. You can just come but naked or an underwear. Okay,

Nick VinZant 48:01

what? I don't understand, like why bosses have a problem? Like all of those aren't professional. Those are shorts like real? Did you think I didn't have legs? Like they didn't? Like what's the big deal?

John Shull 48:12

I do think and this is a rant, so I won't go into it. But I do think as business changes. So is the thought process on you know, a person going to the office everyday doesn't have to wear a three piece suit. If you're never going to be doing anything that requires you to wear a suit, or or entertain or whatever, you know, you do.

Nick VinZant 48:35

I think it's kind of the opposite. And I was a person who used to hire people. Not like I was a hiring person. Like that wasn't my only job. But I was the hiring manager for stuff. And I would always go with the person that kind of looks like they don't give a damn because that probably means they're good enough at that job that they don't have to care. Like if you show up like all in a suit. All that kind of stuff. Like you're probably putting you probably a little bit more show than go.

John Shull 49:01

I mean, I think it's 5050 I think I think some candidates nowadays if they just get on there, and they just literally don't give a shit. They may not actually care.

Nick VinZant 49:12

Yeah, I'm okay with that though, too. Right? Like I think it is a whole is kind of realizing like this is just a job man. Like, what are you going to do for the Why do you want to work here? Because it gives me a paycheck like I don't care about this company. You don't care about me. Let's not pretend like this is some thing about a relationship, man. Just a job. Give me money I give you work. At work.

John Shull 49:36

Oh boy. Oh boy.

Nick VinZant 49:37

I can keep going on this forever. Although while I do not like pants that cover the whole leg. I'm a fan of long sheets, slight long sleeve shirts that cover the whole arm. I'd like to have my arms covered more than my legs.

John Shull 49:53

I mean, yes on that. But really for me, it's just the upper body and my you know pretty much if you You're just to go from my neck to my sideboob down to my you know my pubic area like that's it that's all I need cover

Nick VinZant 50:08

this guy really don't want to think about that at all also if you don't have feeling below your knees playing may need to go to the you may need to check up on him I know

John Shull 50:17

I have I have feeling but like I'm the kind of person that can i don't know i can wear short sleeve t shirt and shorts and 10 degree weather and I'm not bad like as long as I have gloves on and a hat on in some good shoes or boots. I'm not going to get that cold

Nick VinZant 50:38

okay, how long do you think you could last in 20 degree weather? Shoes on you got socks? Shorts long sleeve shirt and you have gloves? I agree if I have gloves on I'm generally that buys me an extra 10 degrees if my hands are warm How long do you think you can last in 20 degree temperature? Is a day or standing outside you're not running you're not doing you're just standing there is a day or night 20 degrees either way No. Let's I don't feel like it counts if the sun is shining directly on you because that can buy you a lot of time. I'm gonna say it's going to be noon but it's cloudy no direct sunlight do you feel is hitting your body and warming you 20 degrees

John Shull 51:23

I mean I well just standing there I'm gonna say less than 10 minutes.

Nick VinZant 51:28

Oh yeah, I guess that is actually really pretty cold. Yeah, it's I don't know you know what I would have been impressed with or been like oh, no way.

John Shull 51:36

I really don't we probably have had somebody on this podcast in the five years we've been doing it that's done something extreme like that. I'm sure

Nick VinZant 51:44

I like to be cool but I don't like to be cold

John Shull 51:49

I actually this past weekend I was in the sun a lot and you would never know it. Because I'm learning as I get older that I don't tan I turn red. And then I go back to pasty so it is what it is.

Nick VinZant 52:00

Like a brown hair ginger really?

John Shull 52:04

coming for me. My brother is a ginger so that would make sense.

Nick VinZant 52:09

Yeah, yeah, he's got to just ginger jeans but not the luggage. They just fake ginger.

John Shull 52:18

I don't even know where I was going with that. I don't even remember at this at this.

Nick VinZant 52:22

I just go into shell Yeah, let's

John Shull 52:23

just, let's just go to where we where we shine by giving people some shiny shout outs. All right. And by the way, my internet is back. You did I need to give you kudos on piecemealing last week's episode. Nobody understands how difficult it is to deal with me on a regular basis like you do, let alone it's frustrating. It's having to it's quite

Nick VinZant 52:47

terrible, honestly. But the thing is, is that you make it so much worse because you don't you refuse to listen or learn your lesson.

John Shull 52:54

You sound like my wife. Anyways, take the compliment. Last week's episode. If you haven't checked it out, you should because that's probably the most effort Nick's put into the podcast at least editing it so well done to you, sir. So here's, here's some shout outs. Katie Brown. Tom Wade, Mark Bortz Nicole P. Otro. Lily millets. I liked that name. Lily.

Nick VinZant 53:19

I like that name to Lily's a solid name.

John Shull 53:22

Charlie snow.

Nick VinZant 53:24

Charlie's okay. I know. Most Charlie's I don't know a lot of bad Charlie's. I had a list of like top tier medium bottom. I don't know any bottom tier Charlie's in terms of people.

John Shull 53:38

I just don't know if I know that many Charlie's maybe five.

Nick VinZant 53:44

I actually don't know. I can't think of a single one. Now that I think actually no one. I know one, Charlie. He's all right.

Unknown Speaker 53:51

Just in the middle.

Nick VinZant 53:52

Who's in the middle.

John Shull 53:54

Greg Josephson, Nadine Chavez, Derek perenco, and Tracy green. All get the shout outs of the week.

Nick VinZant 54:05

Tracy can be hit or miss.

John Shull 54:10

Like it just as the quality of

Nick VinZant 54:12

person. Yeah. Tracy's can generally be hit or miss.

John Shull 54:16

I found that Tracy's with an IE. Fantastic. Ey like this Tracy is or seems to be pretty good. Okay. But if you just tell why. Sometimes it can be borderline.

Nick VinZant 54:33

Have you ever had somebody in your contact list is completely the wrong name?

John Shull 54:37

Yes, actually. Multiple people one person. I thought his name was something for two years until he told me that's not actually how you say it. And that's not how you spell it.

Nick VinZant 54:52

But is it a name like he was close enough? Like no, my name is not Tom. It's thought

John Shull 54:58

like yeah, yes. Similar to that, I mean, I haven't

Nick VinZant 55:02

calling him Steve and his name was Greg. The problem is I

John Shull 55:05

don't like remember people's names. But I haven't, like, made that big of an error in my contact list that I know, that I know of. I have put people down as wrong, like are the wrong people. And then when they message me, I'm like, Oh, hey, Tony. And he's like, this isn't Tony, this is the

Nick VinZant 55:23

so what's your how do you how do you have your wife and your phone contact?

John Shull 55:27

I think we've talked about this. Okay, but how do you have it?

Nick VinZant 55:32

Oh, he got it. And there's a nickname don't you?

John Shull 55:37

You ever in there as Bob's? That's wobs. But yes. Oh, sorry. I mean,

Nick VinZant 55:45

that's just not that's not You're not thinking ahead, right. You're a parent. Now. You've got to plan ahead. If you're like, I need somebody to call my wife who's his wife. It's under wubs. I mean, by now, you got to plan ahead on this. You got to have government name.

John Shull 55:59

I mean, I'm hoping that if I am in that situation, it does say, you know, in case of emergency Melissa Shoal, but you know, I'm hoping if I'm ever that incapacitated, somebody's like, Who's this wubs that is called 47 times.

Nick VinZant 56:14

Man. What if you had like a mistress? And they just checked like most recent, like communications and they call it your mistress or something like that. That has to have happened at some point in history. That has to have happened where they call like, the mistress are the what's the male equivalent of a mistress? Mister? Is there a male equivalent of there has to be misters but I don't know what it is.

John Shull 56:41

Never heard of this before. A Paramore.

Nick VinZant 56:47

Oh, like the band?

John Shull 56:50

No. It's spelled pa ra m o u r?

Nick VinZant 56:56

How do you spell the band?

John Shull 56:59

i Oh, it's an M O R E.

Nick VinZant 57:02

O clever. Clever. Same word different spelling.

John Shull 57:07

But you also have sugar baby kept man or toy boy. Or sugar daddy as well. So

Nick VinZant 57:16

yeah, but I think those are different than just being a mistress. I think a Paramore is probably the male equivalent anyway. It's

John Shull 57:22

also a master can be masculine while mistress is feminine. But I don't think anyone's gonna say, Hey, I'm cheating with my master batches. Sounds terrible.

Nick VinZant 57:32

I think in certain communities, that's a whole other topic. Right? Like you're getting into some shit there. You're like, well, you know, it's good. If you call. Just I'm actually the what do they call the Master? No, I'm not his wife. I'm his dominatrix. Like, well, can you come down here and pick him up? Because he's? Yeah, okay.

John Shull 57:56

All right. Well, after last week's technical challenges, we're bringing back Profoundly Pointless factor fiction. Before

Nick VinZant 58:08

we started calling it the

John Shull 58:12

Profoundly Pointless factor fiction. I've booked up right. They just call it the Profoundly Pointless Fact or Fiction. That better? All right. So they are funny to me. So I'm gonna if you're if you're just tuning in for the first time in a month and a half, I think people get what fac basically give Nick four things? He hasn't. He's kind of on a cold streak. He hasn't he hasn't been doing I don't think that

Nick VinZant 58:47

you have any accurate record keeping of what nice streak actually,

John Shull 58:51

you were I think you were four No, four, no. And then you were like two and two and one and three. So

Nick VinZant 58:57

that's, that's pretty good. That's over 50% foreign for well, you

John Shull 59:04

can fail with 50 percents to 10

Nick VinZant 59:06

to 11 to 11 out of 16. That's pretty good.

John Shull 59:11

All right, well, let's go. Let's see if you get this one. Right. And a group of 23 people, there's more than a 50% chance that two of them share a birthday. True or false?

Nick VinZant 59:26

I would say that's probably false.

John Shull 59:29

And that is actually correct. Okay, with a group of 57 people, the probability of two people sharing a birthday goes up to 99%

Nick VinZant 59:41

with 57 people Yeah, I don't know a single other person that has this. I know way more than 57 people and I don't know a single other person that has the same birthday as I am. I'm gonna go ahead and say I think most people probably know between 500 and 1000 people have met or known at least 500 to 1000 people would you agree with that statement?

John Shull 1:00:03

Sure.

Nick VinZant 1:00:05

I don't know a single person who has my birthday. Do you know anybody who shares a birthday with you? Yeah. Coworker because, uh, one person out of how many.

John Shull 1:00:15

I mean, I, maybe other people do. I mean, I don't know everyone's birthday off the top of my head.

Nick VinZant 1:00:20

Maybe I guess I don't really know a lot of people's birthday. That's not the kind of thing that I would ever remember to be honest with. You.

John Shull 1:00:26

See, so maybe more people share your birthday.

Nick VinZant 1:00:29

That's it legitimately think. I probably only know I don't know your birthday. September 8. No third. Oh, I was decently close. Can you guess mine?

John Shull 1:00:40

already have it on my iPhone calendar. You should actually

Nick VinZant 1:00:43

know it. As it may know, Stone Cold Steve Austin? Oh, yeah.

John Shull 1:00:50

March 16. Are 16 Yeah,

Nick VinZant 1:00:52

that's the only reason. Okay. Well, that's

John Shull 1:00:53

why I'll never forget it. Now.

Nick VinZant 1:00:56

I just feel like that's not really true. Like, I understand that mathematically. That's probably true. But I think if you had a bunch of people that were all together, like nobody has the same birthday.

John Shull 1:01:04

All right. Well, let's see if you can redeem yourself with this one here. toilet seats are full of germs. True or False?

Nick VinZant 1:01:13

Well, I mean, what's your what's your definition of full love? So like, yeah, anything's full of germs. Like your face is full of germs. I think anything is full of it. I

John Shull 1:01:23

think it's a I think it's a known thing that people are afraid sometimes to use public restrooms because they think they're full of germs.

Nick VinZant 1:01:34

You're gonna sit down bare cheeks on a public restroom? Am I absolutely yeah. You go bare cheeks in a public restroom. I

John Shull 1:01:43

mean, it depends where I'm at. But I will sure.

Nick VinZant 1:01:47

Even at work, are you going to do bare cheeks at work?

John Shull 1:01:49

Oh, yeah, absolutely. But I go to the nice Matthews go to the nicer but everybody

Nick VinZant 1:01:53

goes to the nice bathroom. I wouldn't go big. Are you serious? You go bare cheeks at work?

John Shull 1:02:02

I let my my two young daughters go bear cheek? I mean, well, I mean, what's gonna happen? I mean, why would they have to go eight times a shopping trip, like, I'm not going to take the time to, you know,

Nick VinZant 1:02:17

protect your children's health and well being I understand.

John Shull 1:02:20

Anyways, that is

Nick VinZant 1:02:22

I'm not going to take this, I'm not going to take the time to look both ways. When I cross the street. I look one way and then I just go and hope the other way stops by the time I get there.

John Shull 1:02:30

Well, it's to add to this the there was a study done by the University of Arizona, which found after you probably been to some places that they tested the toilet seats that that toilet seats are actually relatively clean compared to normal everyday services that we use every day, including workspaces, kitchen counters, and tray tables.

Nick VinZant 1:02:55

Yeah, but I'm not going I cannot think of a single public place. Not a single one where I would go bear cheeks, hotel, I guess a hotel would be the only thing where somebody else might be doing that. That I'm going bedsheet, okay, if you are not if the house if any area is comprised of someone besides a blood relation of mine, going there, I'm not going bare cheeks.

John Shull 1:03:22

Okay, let's, the University of Arizona also put this little nugget in the in this this story or whatever, that their study found that cell phones are 10 to 25 times more germy than the dirtiest toilet seat that they that they tested.

Nick VinZant 1:03:43

They're going to tell you they did where did they test? They go to a concert festival in the middle of summer, because I'm gonna go ahead and say no on that.

John Shull 1:03:49

Well, actually, it's kind of funny. I asked I brought this question up because it leads to a story which is gonna gross you out now because I don't

Nick VinZant 1:03:59

want to hear it if it's gonna gross me out. Okay, hey, gross stuff. All right. Isn't that good of a story. Tell me a scale of one to 10 how good the story well, it has to Brahman ate.

John Shull 1:04:08

It has to do with a public restroom and myself. Okay, so I was I was I was going to the bathroom. And I was one or two a one. And I was I was I was getting ready to get done. And I had set my phone next to the toilet. And I was like I said I was getting done doing what you can imagine. And I brought my elbow up knocking the phone into the toilet. Got the phone out. Little I didn't even think anything of it. It was still working great. was until I got home when I realized maybe I should have watched this off with a lifestyle wipe. I guess that's an honest to god story that just happened last week actually.

Nick VinZant 1:05:00

Where was the what restroom was it? Were we talking? Are we talking work? We talked what what was the where was the restroom?

John Shull 1:05:06

It was a work bathroom.

Nick VinZant 1:05:09

Slightly not so bad a little bit. Oh, it was like if you were like at a Home Depot, like,

John Shull 1:05:17

oh, this and that was terrible. I I washed my face probably 50 times after I realized it's too late now it was too late. I mean, I ended up to my ear. I probably had shit flying in my mouth like it was. Yeah, but anyways, so just to go along with you wash your hands to oh, I watched every I mean I watched everything.

Nick VinZant 1:05:38

I can't believe you go bare cheeks at work. I wouldn't go bare cheeks and a sink. That's to me is like, Okay, let me give you a list of places and you tell me if you will go.

John Shull 1:05:47

Oh, my coworkers are okay. Yes.

Nick VinZant 1:05:50

Work, obviously. Yes. Work. Yes to work. Public Library. Yeah. Retail Store but it's a little bit nicer. I'm talking to like a Barnes and Noble. Macy's.

John Shull 1:06:06

How about I make this easy? I'll make this easy for you. There's only a few places tell me where you won't tell me where you go. Like a truckstop. Yeah. Like, I don't know how to put this without offending people. But like, like a grocery store or a retail store that doesn't keep their bathrooms clean. Like where they have the you know, needs to be checked every six hours. And you can tell the last time Bob checked. It was three weeks ago. Me and I wouldn't go baertschi and stadiums. I will not. I will not drop it down and go bare cheeks in stadiums if, unless I'm in it when no one else is there. Which is you know, never happened.

Nick VinZant 1:06:49

What about an airport? Yeah. I can't I honestly cannot believe this, to me is one of the grossest things I've ever heard. I could not I could not go bare cheeks at an airport. I mean, like, you got to peel yourself off.

John Shull 1:07:05

No, I mean, I don't know. I mean, I've I guess I can rephrase that. I'll go in airports that have nicer bathrooms, like no offense to, I don't know like Atlanta, but I'm not going to you know, you probably use Atlantis baths are too busy, too busy. But like Detroit, they have a very nice bathroom area. Or Lando had a very nice bathroom la like, you know, Washington DC, probably not going to use their bathrooms because, you know, but also, that doesn't mean I won't and in airports.

Nick VinZant 1:07:37

I wouldn't go bare cheeks. I go, I don't even know if I'd go less. I don't even think that I would go single, single thing. Like single toilet cover. I'd probably do double toilet cover anywhere I go.

John Shull 1:07:48

I just and I don't think once again kinda like how we started this debate or debate this discussion? I don't think there's as many germs on even if somebody was to rub their shit all over it. I think the error kills most things like it's gonna be disgusting. But I don't know if there's a lot that you can get even that way. I mean, times you

Nick VinZant 1:08:09

have COVID seems to be a pattern of you getting like, look, I don't get sick. You get sick every fucking week. Maybe you should adjust your limiting. Right? Like, what? My way seems to be working. I don't know about yours.

John Shull 1:08:25

I mean, you know, it's it is what it is, man. It is. Right. Anyways, let's see. Two out of four. Here we go. Let's see. Number three, true or false? Ah, you lose most of your body heat through your head. That's not true. That is not true. You are correct. You actually only lose according to the British Medical Journal. And I hope that that's a reputable medical journal. About seven to 10% You'll lose a lot more through your hands, shoulders and ankles. Which doesn't. Also doesn't seem right to me. But I guess your ankles is why your toes would get cold. Maybe I have no idea. It's probably like a surface

Nick VinZant 1:09:09

area thing. I have no idea. I'm just I did ankles doesn't seem like just yeah, you're just venting it out the ankle. I would I would have guessed like armpit or something like that. Yeah. Okay.

John Shull 1:09:22

All of the electricity powering the internet in the entire world. If you were to ball that all that up, would only weigh as much as an apricot.

Nick VinZant 1:09:34

I don't think electricity weighs very much. That seems like something that's like, okay, yeah, I'm gonna guess true.

John Shull 1:09:40

It is true. Yes. Yeah.

Nick VinZant 1:09:42

How much does an apricot weigh? I mean, electricity. That's probably actually a lot of electricity if you had to do it by weight, because you're essentially doing something that way. Like you're weighing electrons or whatever. It's just Yeah, it's probably actually a lot.

John Shull 1:09:55

I have no idea but maybe we can get an internet expert on here and they can tell us how much the internet actually ways.

Nick VinZant 1:10:01

Can you tell the difference if some of you blind walked into a grocery store and there was just two bushels sitting there you can tell the difference between apricot and a nectarine? No. Apricot and a peach.

John Shull 1:10:14

Maybe more confident in that than the first one.

Nick VinZant 1:10:18

I think I actually now that I think of what an apricot looks like, it's fairly easy to tell what they are but a nectarine and a peach. I don't think that I could tell the difference and like I bet got like a look unless it was one of those Fuzzy Peaches.

John Shull 1:10:29

You're talking to a guy that spends more time picking out which kind of Apple to buy than actually grocery shopping. So

Nick VinZant 1:10:36

what food what fruit or vegetable Do you think that like, Oh, I know how to pick a good one of those. What's your best like, Ooh, I mean, John did pick it. He knows how to pick a good this.

John Shull 1:10:51

I'm pretty good at picking out sweet corn, like in the summer. Pretty good at getting like Good, good, ripe pieces of corn that just tastes amazing.

Nick VinZant 1:11:00

Mine's watermelon, I can pick a good watermelon. It's not the sound. By the way. For anybody listening. The hollow sound thing is not really true. What you're actually looking for is a uniform greenness. A uniform circular reality, I don't know circuit like it's got to be kind of, it doesn't have to be completely circular. But it needs to be uniform from the front to the back. And you look for a uniform greenness. And then on the bottom of it, you want it to be pretty yellow and flat. Sure, not the sound. It's not the sound. It's not I mean, the sound plays a role. But people get caught up in the sound knocking on it. You look like a rookie. I'm just telling you, I see somebody knocking on watermelon and not looking at the colors. I'm going to go ahead and point that out that that's a person that's opposed and doesn't really know what's going on.

John Shull 1:11:45

So I have one final question about the bathroom discussion. So if you have to drop Chow, you're doing it right. You're just going to layer up the toilet.

Nick VinZant 1:11:53

Yeah, dude, you can't really fight that bodily urge, or I'm going to hover. I'm not my mind. I would not set not only my cheeks, but my nothing below my knee is ever touching any sort of public restroom? I don't I don't know. I'm not touching it.

John Shull 1:12:13

I've hovered once, and it was maybe the most uncomfortable poop I've ever taken. So

Nick VinZant 1:12:19

it's the only reason I do legs at the gym. So I can be built up and strong. So I can hover no matter where I'm at. It's why

John Shull 1:12:26

your calves are immaculate. Yeah,

Nick VinZant 1:12:29

that's great cast, baby. Are you ready for our top five?

John Shull 1:12:32

I am, it should be a fun one.

Nick VinZant 1:12:34

So our top five is top five worst lines to wait in? What's your number five.

John Shull 1:12:39

So this is my number five, I think it'd be most women's number one or number two. But because I'm a man, my number five is going to be like bar bar, bar bathrooms, like waiting in line at a bar to go to the bathroom or club.

Nick VinZant 1:12:56

Oh, I can see some but there's some people, right? Like, if this was your hustle, this was your hustle. But there was some people that would kind of hang out by the bathroom line. Because there's a little bit of a captive audience. Yeah, it used to be a strategy that some people would employ. My number five is also a bathroom, but it's specifically an airport bathroom. Okay, because if there's a line in the early morning, like I just don't like the idea of like, I know what you just did. And I'm gonna go in there to do that. And there's three other people who are in line enemy that are also just did that I'm not messing with that. And you're gonna go bear cheeks in there, when there's a line six or seven deep to go to the one stall where everybody's doing that. And you're just gonna walk in there and go bear cheeks after it.

John Shull 1:13:44

I mean, obviously, if it looks like it needs a little dusting, I'm going to dust it up. But if it looks fine, and there it's relatively quaint and clean. Sure. I'll drop trowel and do my business.

Nick VinZant 1:13:55

I now but wait a minute. Is this really a thing that like, look, I really don't think that this is that big of a public health issue. I'm really not worried about germs. You're just being lazy.

John Shull 1:14:05

No, I'm just I'm just not not that worried about germs. I mean, this is gonna sound really gross to a lot of people. But for the for the longest time. I never washed my hands after going to the bathroom until I was old enough to realize you know, some of the germs that you can give yourself if you don't wash your hands

Nick VinZant 1:14:26

Oh, I don't really wash my hands if I go number one. I mean I know I'm I'm an adult I know how not to pee on my own hands.

John Shull 1:14:33

That's just because you don't need assistance it just anyways.

Nick VinZant 1:14:37

Right? I don't know you go with that one. But okay, what's your number four

John Shull 1:14:42

you know what, I don't really know where I was go with that one either. Airport security, or really what's your number for really any? I was trying to find a way to like wrap it it's really any kind of like getting into an events, but like, like airport security. So really waiting To get into an event going through security I guess, because it doesn't matter if you you know no one wants to do it for one and then you know it's just you get nervous everyone you know if you say you're not nervous going through security you're a fraud because you're always is the thing gonna go off who ever take off my belt buckle you know if you're in an airport like you could get you can miss your flight if they detain you for further questioning, like, just nervous.

Nick VinZant 1:15:29

I always feel like that when I have like I went through customs today because I was heading back from Canada and I have legitimately kind of wondered is like, oh, there's no, like, is there a desert Okay, in the car? I don't think I got anything right. But as you never know. Yeah, right. You might have had a long night one night not realized what you did. My number four is a theme park. I hate waiting in line at theme park. It's a 45 minute wait for a 45 second ride. I hate a theme park line. So I have never worked never worth it.

John Shull 1:16:01

I agree with you so much in fact that I have it way further up on the list. But that

Nick VinZant 1:16:07

is probably the lowest return on investment line weight that you could ever imagine. Is it theme park ride?

John Shull 1:16:16

No, I actually my number three I think maybe worse in terms of in return of investment but I have any kind of like holiday shopping lines or Black Friday lines. So really holiday shopping lines. I don't really shop brick and mortar much anymore. But I would never wait in those lines. Best part was being with my father who would get really angry make a scene and then we would storm out of their stores.

Nick VinZant 1:16:46

Because he had to wait in the line. Did he see the line ahead of him? Of course. But you know, that's a lot. A line is never a surprise. Like you know what you're getting into like, oh, you know, and you can do okay,

John Shull 1:16:57

it's just for what I think it's ridiculous and to muscle things now you can buy online, maybe cheaper than waiting outside and 10 degree weather.

Nick VinZant 1:17:07

Yeah, I don't do any of that. I'm not buying anything in store on any of those hobbies. My number three I think is going to be underrated. But my number three is a gas station line to get gas because it's always a little bit unclear who's next. Somebody might be backing in somebody might be pulling through and you might not know that somebody else is in line like that is the line that is the least like align. But it's a pain in the ass. You got to get the right side. You got to get the right car. You don't know. Like that's a crapshoot.

John Shull 1:17:37

Yeah, so my, my my number two is kind of like that. It's like a, like a restaurant like a an ice cream shop or a fast food line. Like, you know, you wait and you wait and you wait. It's kind of like the gas station. And you're like, why am I waiting here? I just it may you know, but you wait.

Nick VinZant 1:17:58

My number two is like the bar line when you're just up at the bar, and it's never clear. Like Well, who's next? Who's Oh, man? Is it yours? There's no line real? You

John Shull 1:18:10

just got to take it. All right, you just got to do it. Like, you just got to go and just just take ownership of that line.

Nick VinZant 1:18:19

That's not actually my number two. Now that I realized that my number two is the DMV. Oh, waiting for it. And I could expand that to any sort of public line. Any sort of public service line like going to the DMV? Yeah, utilities. Driver's License. Yeah. Well, Anna for the water, he would any kind of like public service line.

John Shull 1:18:39

Thankfully now at least in Michigan, you can schedule ahead of time, so you don't have to wait in those lines. But yeah, back in the day when computers weren't a thing. You would wait hours just waiting there with the rest of the world. It's terrible.

Nick VinZant 1:18:55

Are you number two? Are you number one,

John Shull 1:18:56

I'm number one, which if you've been listening to this, you know, my number one is going to be theme park rides.

Nick VinZant 1:19:01

Yeah, it's it's pretty bad.

John Shull 1:19:03

It's terrible because most of the theme parks are in warm places. So not only are you you know, are you sweating like a pig? Like if you go to Disney World? That's a two hour wait to ride the teacups. I mean, give me a break and you do it anyways.

Nick VinZant 1:19:18

What's the longest you've ever waited in line?

John Shull 1:19:22

Oh, I mean, probably an hour.

Nick VinZant 1:19:27

For a theme park.

John Shull 1:19:29

Oh theme I waited four plus hours to ride a roller coaster at Cedar Point one time in Ohio.

Nick VinZant 1:19:35

That sounds awful. That said Was it worth it

John Shull 1:19:39

a minute? 30? No. If you think about it, it's no I mean, I you could have written you could have written 12 other rides. Instead you waited for you know, a buck 30 at a time it was great. But when you look at it, it's like what was I doing?

Nick VinZant 1:19:55

My number one is airport anything. Every line at the airport is awful. From the check in line, the baggage line, the TSA line The line and get on the plane, the line to get off the plane. Everything at the airport is awful. But if I had to pick a specific part, a specific area or a specific line at the airport, it would be the customer service line after everybody's flight gets canceled, because it's just like, you're fucked. How fucked Are you?

John Shull 1:20:24

Yeah, see, and I haven't really experienced that actually, every time I've flown so far has been fine service. Um, but I've seen it, and that that could easily be top five for me. I'm gonna put on my honorable mention, just because I haven't really experienced the whole you know, flight cancellation line yet, but I'm sure it will sooner than later.

Nick VinZant 1:20:45

What how do you not have a canceled flight yet in your life?

John Shull 1:20:48

Never haven't had not had not have had one in my entire life.

Nick VinZant 1:20:53

You've never not even a delayed flight. I've had a delayed flight but not

John Shull 1:20:57

one to where like they call or come over the intercom. And I was like, flight t 001. is canceled. That's the worst feeling

Nick VinZant 1:21:05

man. And I

John Shull 1:21:07

flown in the winter. I mean, I've flown you know, in bad weather? I don't know. Because, yeah,

Nick VinZant 1:21:13

maybe that's the secret going bear cheeks at places. Maybe you get sick a lot. But your airport airport line doesn't get

John Shull 1:21:20

screwed. You hear this voice? You're not going to hear it this way. Next week. I'm gonna have a sniffle or a cold or something. I don't know.

Nick VinZant 1:21:26

What's your flights on time? What's your honorable mention?

John Shull 1:21:29

Not that many things. So I have I have like bathroom lines, just in general, like sporting events, which we kind of already talked about. The DMV was on there. I also have in this this is old school but like toy store lines. Like when you would go to a toy store as a kid. And you were so excited to get get your toy and then you'd realize you have to wait in line for 30 minutes before you could open it. It's just a just defeating.

Nick VinZant 1:21:56

I don't have a lot and my honorable mentioned but I have rental car. rental car waiting for a rental cars bad a pharmacy waiting in line and a pharmacy to me is awful. Yeah, like is it going to be ready? How much is this going to cost me is insurance paying for it? Why is this person ahead of me asking 50,000 questions like this person is a doctor. Like Well, what do I take over my knee? I don't know, dude, pick up your prescription.

John Shull 1:22:20

I do I do. I will add a hospital like waiting room lines. Like ER room lines, though. I know. You know, they're moving at their own pace. But

Nick VinZant 1:22:30

I mean, if you the only thing is I would say that's not really a line. No, but I mean stand in there. Yeah, but

John Shull 1:22:36

you go in there with your finger cut off and you have to wait an hour because Johnny brown next to you is having a heart attack. Come on.

Nick VinZant 1:22:44

Yeah, that's weird how they just you know, do it based on priority, right? Look, man, I got a really bad headache. Well, he's been shot 20 times and take care of him first. Take care of me. Help me? Um, is there any good line? Do you have any good line? Like, well, I'm waiting in line for this cocaine. Ah, okay, that's gonna go ahead and do it for this episode of Profoundly Pointless. I want to thank you so much for joining us. If you get a chance. Leave us a review doesn't have to be anything big. Just a couple of quick words really helps us out. And let us know what you think are some of the worst lines to wait in. I really don't know how you're going to be theme parks or the airport. Those seem just awful to me, but at least a theme park. You can just leave. You don't you don't really have to be there. An airport. You're just stuck. There's nothing you can do.