Chum 101's album covers on Air Max's

August 25 2006 sees the opening of Nike's Festival of Air at the Nike Town shop in Oxford Circus and we're chuffed that the exhibition includes new work by London-based graf artist, Chum 101.

The festival is a celebration of 27 years of Nike Air trainers. Chum 101 aka Barney Trattles of I-SAW told us: "Out of the whole Air Max range the Air Max 1 is my favourite. So I challenged myself to engrave three pairs of Air Max's with the covers of three seminal albums from 1987." That's right, we're not making this up. After being invited to take part in the exhibition, Chum 101 took the opportunity to pay graf homage on trainers to Eric B & Rakim's 'Paid in Full', Boogle Down Productions' 'Criminal Minded' and Public Enemy's 'You! Bum Rush The Show'.

Mixing typography with portraiture, the project has given the artist the chance to work outside his usual remit for I-SAW which, as well as a developing ranges of graf-inspired menswear and womenswear and quirky homewares, also specialises in taking over spaces and rebranding them. Barney has a degree in Fine Art and reckons he did his first ever piece of public graf in south west London, "but I was dabbling doing stuff on paper before that."

He's pioneered his own hand-engraving technique on leather which he calls 'Engraviti™'. The method came about four years ago when he was experimenting with leather belts. Then in 2004 he began hand engraving leather shoes and his work has won him fans and supporters across the Atlantic - he will soon be heading for New York to perform his customisations live at a Sneaker Pimps party.

Some examples of 'Engraviti™'.       More pix below.

The customised Air Max 1s will be displayed in cabinets at Nike Town from August 25 until September 28 and on September 22 (time tbs) Chum 101 will be demonstrating his work live - so if you have Air Max 1s or similar leather trainers, introduce yourself to the man with a rotary tool and ask for a one-off Engraviti™ and he'll oblige.

The engraved trainers have been commissioned by Nike, but are the property of Chum 101, so you need to speak to the geez himself if you want a pair. Also, watch out for Chum's forthcoming toy designs for 2000AD.

For more info on Nike Air Festival see www.nike.com

For info on I-SAW see www.i-saw.co.uk

Nike's Festival of Air is at 236 Oxford Street London, tel: 0207 612 0800.