Ailah Carpenter, a former Prince Albert resident, designed these shoes during Pride month, and won an eBay Canada contest for it. (Photo submitted/Ailah Carpenter)

By Susan McNeil

Pride

Pride from Prince Albert sells on eBay

Jul 6, 2022 | 11:35 AM

Ailah Carpenter is getting some traction in the artistic world with name recognition in Prince Albert, having made a mark in Saskatoon and now with national exposure through a national eBay contest.

Carpenter used to live in Prince Albert, moved to Saskatoon for university. (Submitted photo/Ailah Carpenter)

Carpenter, who uses any pronoun (she, they, he), is Cree and Scottish, a former resident of Prince Albert and 2 Spirited and all those factors went into a recent effort to create art on a sneaker.

The effort paid off when she took the top prize in the contest during Pride Month.

“I thought taking the risk was worth it because the design was nice, I identify with it and so do so many people around me and I wanted to bring it to the forefront of the conversation,” said Carpenter.

International Spotlight

P.A.'s Howe one of 4 Sask. born players named to Canada's World Junior roster

2h ago

National

Ottawa to remove 30% investment cap for Canadian pension funds

6h ago

Budget woes

Golf and curling centre faces grim season without financial boost

9h ago

The thought of competing in a large competition run by a global company was daunting, to say the least.

“It seemed really impossible to be able to partake in because it was run by eBay and marked and a really big seeming opportunity,” Carpenter said.

According to Carpenter, being an artist in the modern world is difficult to stay in and requires a social media presence.

According to the company’s website, artists aged 19 to 24 were given the chance to be in a one-day Art on Sneaker Workshop, which was followed by a 48-hour window to apply the learning to a pair of plain white PUMA sneakers.

For Carpenter, that meant using cultural and personal meaning and applying it to the concept of Pride.

“For Pride, there’s so many words and variations and identities to take into mind, but I wanted one that I could identify with as well as one that could identify with the people around me,” said Carpenter.

“Especially around here where even the Indigenous people tend to be more discriminatory towards queer people,” said Carpenter. “I’ve witnessed that in my own communities where they just didn’t want to accept that two-spirit was a thing still.

From a design perspective, the job was difficult because there was a whole new style to learn and deliver in a few days.

“By the time the second day came, I made it, but I had to pull an all-nighter before the shipping time started,” she said.

To get the look she wanted, the laces were dyed, the nubs were coloured and she hand-painted the rest of the shoes, which made for an arduous task.

After the competition ended, the shoes were auctioned off by eBay with the money going to a Pride-related cause.

Carpenter’s shoes sold for over $100.

—

susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @princealbertnow