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Style
INSIDE: Permanent jewelry trend arrives in BR
Just for kicks
Whether he’s partnering with athletes on a pair of painted sneakers or creating a painting, everything comes back to Louisiana for Michael Anderson
BY ZANE PIONTEK
Michael Anderson pictured with LSU Baseball player and 2021 National Freshman of the Year Dylan Crews
MICHAEL ANDERSON IS an odd mix of aspirational. He’s had a career that would spark inconsolable envy in two categories: aspiring artists and fashion designers for his success in painting and apparel making, and sports fans for his myriad collaborations with premier athletes.
The 30-year-old LSU alumnus and former oil and gas engineer is the founder and (for now) one-man factory behind a brand that, if you follow any branch of LSU Athletics (and particularly its players’ social media), you may have heard of: Boot Up Customs.
Under that brand, Anderson has painted portraits, sneakers and cleats for an impressive— and growing—list of both collegiate and professional athletes, including the likes of Leonard Fournette, Dylan Crews and Diontae Spencer— and even a few formidable names in the rap game.
His shoes are handpainted and airbrushed in vibrant shades, and each detail, from delicately painted Tiger stripes to jersey numbers to abstract shapes, tells the story of the person who will wear it.
Ironically, it all started because he wanted a painting he couldn’t afford.
Jacob Zumo is another popular artist, who grew to Baton Rouge fame from a similar hustle to Anderson’s: painting portraits of celebrities. Around the time Anderson graduated from Catholic High School in 2010, he saw one of Zumo’s portraits of the late rapper Mac Miller and fell in love with it. But with an $1,800 price tag, it was well outside his budget.
“So I said, ‘Alright, then I’m gonna start doing it myself,’” Anderson says over the phone from Austin, Texas, where he now makes monthly trips from his current creative headquarters in Denver, Colorado, to work as a sales manager for a solar power company.
Zumo and Anderson would go on to become friends and collaborators, but in the meantime, Anderson worked toward his first big project.
In 2016, he painted a portrait of former LSU running back Leonard Fournette with his young daughter— Anderson’s first attempt at following Zumo’s example. With the help of some connections on the team, he shared the painting with Fournette via Snapchat–who ended up loving it, inviting Anderson to deliver it to his apartment in person.
After that, things were pretty slow for a minute, as Anderson slogged through his rigorous engineering curriculum and entered the professional workforce. But then in 2018, two watershed projects came through that cranked the burner on his career: a portrait for rapper Russ (“one of my biggest inspirations—I consider (him) one of my heroes,” Anderson says,) and custom sneakers for former LSU basketball player
Skylar Mays. The sneakers were made in honor of Mays’ late teammate Wayde Sims, whose tragic death rocked the LSU community that year.
It was then that “the gears started turning,” and Anderson began to believe he could make an honest, profitable go of an art endeavor that, a few years prior, would have seemed like an ungraspable pipe dream.
Now, Anderson’s resume bulges with collaborations with athletes Patrick Surtain, Jaden Hill, Ja’Marr Chase and Tari Easton; rapper The Kid LAROI; Fred’s Bar & Grill in Baton Rouge; LSU Athletics; and upcoming appearances on shows like Off The Bench and The Jordy Culotta Show.
But with all that success and acclaim around the nation—and yet heftier projects on the horizon, like his first mass-produced sneaker and hoodie designs, soon to be made available to the public on his website— Anderson says it’s still the projects about, for or dedicated to Louisiana— and LSU in particular—that matter most to him.
“I have so much pride in where I’m from, in the Louisiana community, the LSU community, so being able to represent Louisiana and LSU as I do this is amazing,” he says. “I want to paint the entire state of Louisiana in Tiger stripes.” bootupcustoms.com
Anderson with former LSU basketball player Tari Eason, who was a first-round draft pick for the Houston Rockets
—Boot Up Customs founder Michael Anderson
KEY TERM
Zapping
The welding technique used to make jewelry permanent. The links of the jewelry (usually bracelets or necklaces) are custom-sized to fit the wearer. The ends are then “zapped,” or fused together without a clasp.
SHOP THE BRAND
Find the latest Forever Lillies pop-up calendar on Instagram at @forever_lillies_jewelry. For those who can’t make it to an event, owner Sydney Marrs can also book private appointments through the brand’s Instagram page.
Forever Lillies offers permanent jewelry for adults and kids.
Forever and always
Permanent jewelry for the whole family has arrived in Baton Rouge, thanks to local brand Forever Lillies
By Olivia Deffes // Photos by Collin Richie
SYDNEY MARRS IS bringing a whole new meaning to the term “timeless jewelry.”
Through her blooming business Forever Lillies, she uses delicate pieces of metal chain and a welding tool to make long-lasting, element-resistant jewelry pieces with one simple zap.
That “zapping” is a national trend you may have seen on social media: dainty bracelets that are fused together without clasps. Marrs quickly noticed that bigger cities like Nashville and Dallas had dozens of businesses and jewelry stores offering this service, but couldn’t find anything similar in Baton Rouge other than an occasional pop-up.
She started making jewelry as a hobby. But she added her own signature twist—while permanent jewelry is popular for couples to do together, Marrs thought it could cater to parents and children as well.
With three little ones, including a daughter who wants everything her mom has, Marrs was surprised how hard it was to find permanent chain options for children. When she started Forever Lillies, she says she made sure to have at least three kid-friendly options, including fun add-ons like charms.
“I saw in bigger cities where you could put just the plain chain on your kid. But they weren’t offering a kid-exclusive option, so that’s where I came in,” she says.
Because permanent jewelry is a brand-new trend for Baton Rouge, Marrs wondered if it would take a while to catch on. It turned out it didn’t take long at all. On the day of our interview, Marrs and her husband, Chris, have only been selling jewelry for two months. In that short time, Marrs says they have already sold more than 750 pieces of jewelry through private parties and pop-up events.
Now, shoppers can catch Marrs popping up at local businesses, stocked with different styles of permanent jewelry.
She says her partnerships with local boutiques and shops have allowed her to grow her business in a way she never dreamed was possible. It’s why Marrs always encourages her customers to shop and support the business that hosts her pop-ups.
“I feel like it’s a good collaboration between me and a boutique, a food place or an event venue, because people come in to get permanent jewelry, but then they stay and shop or get ice cream or whatever the business offers,” she says. “It helps both of us, because I’m kind of bringing in foot traffic but then my customers are supporting that other local business. So I love that it’s like we’re supporting each other and getting more people to shop local.”
Marrs playfully warns that once you get one piece of permanent jewelry, it starts an addiction. In only two months, she has had repeat customers who are eager to keep growing their collections. Marrs wears multiple pieces from Forever Lillies herself.
She says she loves how she doesn’t have to remember to put them on or worry about them turning.
Chains from Forever Lillies are either sterling silver or gold-filled, and Marrs makes sure that each goes through testing to prevent signs of wear. She has worn her pieces at the pool and the beach to ensure that nothing tarnishes.
Though it may be a trend, she hopes her customers can wear their pieces for as long as they want. “I don’t just sell you whatever I buy,” she says. “I test it. I put it on my family to test it and make sure that not only is it gonna hold up, but that it looks good, too.”
Though each new piece takes time to test, Marrs is constantly trying to find new charms, chains and additions to keep up the popularity of her business.
By participating in pop-ups and private events, Marrs wants to establish herself as Baton Rouge’s go-to business for permanent jewelry creations.
“I’m just so thankful and grateful for the overwhelming response. I hope that it’s not a fad and that it’s only going to last a few years,” she says. “But I felt like while the market is hot and while the world is so into permanent jewelry, that I need to go go go and get my name out there. I don’t know whether there will be other people that pop up, so I’m just trying to make Forever Lillies at least the name in Baton Rouge.”
