An Indigenous artist from Nova Scotia recently had his art on the big screen – but in a rather unconventional way. Austin Hepworth of Millbrook First Nation paints custom designs on shoes creating one-of-a-kind pieces. He says he found his passion during the pandemic while looking for a new hobby. “I made myself a pair, made myself another pair and a family member saw it and was like, ‘Hey, could you make me a pair?’ so I made them a pair,” he said. “It just started snowballing and kind of got to the point where I was like, ‘I could make a side business out of this,’ so I kept going and now I’ve kind of developed into an actual business and I’ve made tons and tons of pairs.” His brand is now known as A-Hep’s Customs. When he got tickets to attend a Power Slap event in March, Hepworth said he had an idea to create a custom pair of shoes for the event. Power Slap – a competition in which people literally slap each other in the face – features competitors from around the world “battling on the ultimate stage to showcase their power, technique and resolve” After creating a post on Instagram, he tagged a couple of the competitors – one of those being the middleweight champion at that time, Branden Bordeaux, also known as “The Butcher.” “I thought it would be really cool. I tagged The Butcher and a bunch of others in the post, he was one of the ones that saw it, so I briefly met him back then,” he said. “He won the belt, it was awesome, then I found out he would be headlining the October card so I reached out to him and said, ‘Hey, would you like a custom pair?’ and sent him a mock-up.” After getting the approval from The Butcher, Hepworth got to work on the shoes. “So, I made them, met him the day before the event, gifted them to him, and he loved the shoe.” The Butcher even wore the shoes to the Power Slap 15 event on Oct. 3 in Las Vegas where he faced Isaih Quinones. Quinones won the bout by second-round knockout to regain the middleweight title. For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page
