CHICAGO — Matthew Hoffman, the artist responsible for sprawling "You Are Beautiful" across Chicago neighborhoods, is bringing the positive mantra to the shoe game.
Shoes designed by Hoffman featuring the design from the public art installations that have popped up in Andersonville, Englewood, Beverly and elsewhere are now available on Bucketfeet. The site takes artist's designs and implements them into footwear.
"You're basically a walking You Are Beautiful sticker," said Hoffman, adding his favorite part of the design was making the message face strangers encountering the shoes.
"You're wearing these shoes everywhere you go. You can be on the train and sending that message to anyone. You're putting that out there for someone to encounter," he said.
The company released a black pair of the women's shoes during the holiday season that are currently available for $47. The company also unveiled a new design for the shoes in silver, which are currently $84, he said.
The project has grown incredibly since he began the campaign in 2002.
"We started with a batch of 100 stickers," Hoffman said. "This month we printed our 3 millionth. The project has grown by people sharing [the message] with eachother."
Over the years, Hoffman has rolled out the design in various forms including buttons, street signs, postcards and sweatshirts. Last month, he released a license plate featuring the art.
"We try to put something for people to interact with the message once a month," he said.
In February, an Andersonville husband co-opted an installment near the intersection of Clark Street and Foster Avenue personalizing the artwork for his wife, Liz, who was having a tough week.
"It was pretty cool ... It was well done. It all matched the piece well," he said. "The Andersonville Chamber of Commerce reached out to me and thought it might be fun to leave it up for Valentine's Day."
Reactions to the personalized installment "shed light on what the project means. It was for everyone," he said.
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