Jordana Schrager surrounded by her creations

The Ni-

Gorgeously graphic

Lynne Konstantin
Arts & Life Editor

lished with friends' favorite
musicians, icons, logos and
more — and soon launched
ne night during high
Sneakers by Jordana.
school, then-16-year-
Now Jordana is preparing
old Jordana Schrager
to enter her senior year at the
was home, grounded and bore d. University of Michigan — "I
She found a pair of unworn
applied to a lot of schools," she
white Vans that her parents
says, "but when I toured U-M's
campus, I fell in love" — where
had bought her, pulled out a
few waterproof paint Sharpies
she is studying art and design
with a minor in business.
and set to work unleashing her
Bringing her sneaker skills to
doodling talents on the blank
canvas.
college with her, Jordana gained
"I wore them around town
followers through social media.
and got great feedback and
A single pair of hand-drawn
started getting requests," says
shoes, which once took two
Jordana, who grew up in New
weeks to complete, now are fin-
York. She began
ished in a day. The sneakers, a
taking custom
mash-up of graffiti-style draw-
orders for
ings on off-the-shelf Vans and
sneakers
high- and low-top Converse,
to embel-
soon saw the influence of her
school spirit as Jordana added
collegiate colors and mascots to
her offerings.
"I loved doing the
hand-drawn sneakers,
but I also wanted to do
something that would be

doodles and

0

collegiate spirit

spell success for a

U-M student.

70

August 13 • 2015

•

easier and less time-consuming
to produce," says Jordana, 21,
who is active at the Hillel on
U-M's campus. So she turned
to her mom, Meryl, who stud-
ied fashion design at Syracuse
University, to help develop a
plan to mass-market sneakers
in college colors and logos. She
also received advice from Len
Middleton, a faculty member at
U-M's Ross School of Business
and Jordana's entrepreneurship-
studies professor.
Armed with samples, mother
and daughter met with David
Hirth, owner of the M Den, a
collegiate retailer in Ann Arbor.
"He loved the idea:' Meryl says.
"He said he'd never seen it
before.
"He gave us a purchase order
and sent us to a collegiate
licensing company. Because we
had the purchase order, they
gave us a license. And once
U-M said yes, we went to other
schools. And that was it:'
Bringing in Meryl's friend Lisa
Benedict, who studied marketing

at Syracuse, as a business partner,
the three women launched Boca
Raton-based Sideline Sneakers
a year ago this week, with two
brands under its umbrella.
Sneakers by Jordana allows the
entrepreneur to continue taking
custom orders for her graffitti
sneakers, which have been worn
by Ariana Grande, Selena Gomez
and Nick Cannon. The shoes,
which start at $250, have grabbed
the attention of Teen Vogue and
Seventeen, who have each fea-
tured Jordana, and her Instagram,
@sneakersbyjordana, has more
than 11,000 global followers.
The trio also introduced
Skicks, which debuted the pro-
fessionally manufactured colle-
giate designs on Converse-style
high- and low-tops with four
schools — Michigan, Syracuse,
Indiana and Wisconsin, plus a
pink breast-cancer awareness
style.
"We added more schools
in September, then more in
October," says Meryl, who adds
that MSU is one of their biggest