Meet Elijah Rutland of Fix My Sole in Burbank

Today we’d like to introduce you to Elijah Rutland.

Elijah, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I started with art by watching cartoons as a kid and I would always draw my favorite characters and superheroes. Around 4th grade, I started reading manga like DragonBall Z and Naruto and I would always draw the characters from the books and I would create my own characters based off of the different series that I would read.

Also around the same time was when I started to always want the new Jordans and Nikes that would come out and my parents wouldn’t buy them for me so I used to draw them on paper and I would color them that way.

Fast forward to 10th grade, that was the first time I started painting shoes. I was on Instagram one day and I saw other people who were painting shoes so I went on Youtube and watched a ton of videos so I could learn what I needed to do to get started and I went from there. I kept building my custom shoes brand, Fix My Sole, until February of 2018 when I first started digital art.

I started digital art because I was in the band during my freshman year of college, I didn’t have a lot of time to sit down and paint a pair of shoes or a canvas like I was used to but I still wanted a way to create art. Luckily, I had an old iPad at the time and I bought a cheap stylus and started to learn the basics of digital art and I started posting my early work on Instagram and over time that started to pick up and I was able to buy a new iPad and it grew from there to the Fix My Sole that you see today. I started only painting shoes but now I also do digital illustrations, canvases, murals, jean jackets, and pretty much anything that can be painted.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It definitely has not always been a smooth road. A major challenge I faced when I first started painting was that I didn’t really have any money to get started painting so I had to ask my dad to take me to Goodwill to buy a cheap pair of shoes and Walmart to buy paint (which I quickly realized was a mistake) and that was how I got started. I would find any pair of old shoes that were lying around my house and I would paint them.

Another major struggle that I had was in the summer of 2016 when a pair of my shoes got stolen. This happened to me after I painted a pair of Jordan 6s and I decided that I wanted to try to sell them for $100 to make a little extra money so I posted them in a couple of local Facebook sneaker groups to see if anyone was interested. A few days pass and a guy inboxed me and said he wanted to buy them so we set up a time to meet the next day. He came to my house and I met him outside in his car and I handed him the shoes and he handed me a $100 bill and drove off. As I was holding the bill in my hand I thought it felt a little funny but I wasn’t sure because until that point I had never held a $100 bill in my hand so I looked at it and it said “For Motion Picture Use Only” and I realized I had been scammed.

Once I came to my senses, I ran upstairs and told my Dad what happened and we drove down to the police station to file a report but there wasn’t really anything the police could do so I posted about the situation on my Facebook page and it got a ton of traction and engagement. So much so that a reporter from a local news station reached out to me and said that she wanted to do a story about me and my business. The story ended up being so popular and helped my business grow so much that I didn’t even think about the shoes that I lost because I was able to gain so much more from all the media attention that I was receiving. This incident ended up being a major turning point in my career as an artist.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
My business is named Fix My Sole. I started out in 2015 just custom painting tennis shoes and throughout the years I expanded to painting jackets, hats, and canvases. In 2018 I expanded to creating digital illustrations which has changed my business to a multimedia art business as it is known today. On the custom shoe side, I specialize in highly detailed and carefully thought out designs on the shoes. On the digital side, I’m probably most known for the “Black Rolf” character I created that turned into a viral meme but aside from that I’m known for my very detailed and accurate character portraits.

The thing that I am most proud of is that all of the attention, notoriety, success, etc. has come from my skills as an artist. I make it a point to focus on my art and my life journey as a young artist and entrepreneur. I have seen many people lose sight of their artistic skills in the process of trying to grow on social media and that was the route that I made sure not to take.

What were you like growing up?
Growing up, I was a very quiet but very observant child. (I still am the same way today). I was interested in all things that were cartoons, superheroes, or manga/anime. Some of my favorites growing up were Spiderman, Batman, DragonBall Z, Tom and Jerry, Naruto, Slam Dunk, and Space Jam.

I was also very interested in learning geography, state capitals and the US presidents.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.fixmysole.com
• Phone: 4782280655
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/fixmysole
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/fixmysole
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/fixmysole

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