It was a fun and creative experience at the LA location but I have to share my experience from top to bottom because it could have been better for what it cost. I bought a pair of $150 'student' tickets as a fun activity for me and my boyfriend. We planned a trip to LA from Seattle, so we included this in our itinerary as it takes the majority of the day. A day before the actual class, I emailed both the 'contact' and 'support' emails online which happened to be the same person who responded (founder, Ruben Barraza). I ended up not finding a pair of shoes I wanted to customize, so I reached out to see if I could just use my 'student' ticket as a 'guest' pass which is essentially a downgrade just to watch/ help my boyfriend with his shoes and get credit for the $70 difference to use for laces or anything extra he might get. The response to my email was super brief, brash and dismissive. There was some back and forth considering I emailed well before the 12-hour policy to see if there was a work around. Mind you, I wasn't asking to reschedule nor could I since we were visiting, and I wasn't asking for a refund--I read the policy carefully before purchasing and was well aware there are no refunds. I was simply asking to do what I was intending to do anyway, which was attend the class--just without a pair of shoes. The owner basically stated that there's no store credit according to the site which actually didn't state that at all, and they can't accommodate and suggested bringing a pair of shoes further reinforcing the fact that he didn't read my initial email stating that I didn't find any in time, which was really disappointing and BS customer service considering that he already had my money and I wasn't asking for anything extra. I get setting standards but that's a scheisty and greedy business model.
About the actual class, I ended up going in and letting one of the operators know my situation and they were super cool with it like it was no big deal. Surprising considering my conversation with the owner. The class itself was set up really well, there was a whiteboard with a breakdown of the class with time codes of what the process was and how long each step should take. They went over the materials available and others that could be purchased and it was fun and a breeze. The instructors consistently came around, checked in on us throughout the class, gave some great tips and helped create or complete people's designs and were super personable and charismatic. Great people overall.
The downside was that I bought a pair of SB Dunk Triple Whites for the project and after spending a good amount of time designing and painting, we gave the shoes to one of the instructors to sew on the fabric swoosh cut outs, and it came out super crappy. The stitching wasn't even at all and it looked botched. At that point undoing it would've ruined the paint and would have just been more of an ordeal. I've used sewing machines before and I knew that the instructor forgot to put the foot of the machine down, and I even heard the other instructor letting him know on someone else's pair. I think paying $150 per person a class, the instructors should have those basics down. Unfortunately, we were pretty bummed with the outcome so I tried to cover up the edges of the swoosh with more paint and glitter and it just came out looking bad overall. So to anyone going, I would suggest going in with an inexpensive, basic pair of shoes because I felt like I wasted money both on the shoes and the class on the Triple Whites that got botched. Based on the videos of the classes and what they post on instagram, I just didn't expect that to happen.
Anyway, still a cool class to take but the customer service from the owner could definitely use improvement and making sure the instructors are skilled and paying attention to their sewing would definitely lend to a better experience. read more