Ex-JFS pupil’s art dazzles top footballers
FOUR YEARS ago, he was working in a retail job at Nike in Oxford Street.
Now former JFS pupil Jordan Dawson, 27, runs a business drawing portraits of football stars and customising their boots — and has worked with the likes of Declan Rice, Thierry Henry and Brazilian star Kaká.
While working at the Nike store, Mr Dawson revamped spare trainers in his free time. He gradually built up his portfolio, sharing it with various sportswear brands — but to no avail.
Then one day, he made an appointment with Nike’s HR department armed with examples of his work.
“They actually said: ‘Why have you not shown this to us before?’” He went on to customise Air Force 1 trainers for shop customers and caught the eye of competitors, including Converse and Puma.
He now has 23,000 Instagram followers and his feed is filled with snaps of his work with some of the sport’s biggest names, including Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins, Chelsea and England player Fran Kirby and others.
“I contacted 30 to 40 footballers a day and then [Aston Villa player] Lucas Digne picked it up, shared it on Instagram and it just snowballed from there,” he said.
“I am not a showy off person but to see my art in that way, wearable art is something I wouldn’t have imagined as a kid,” Mr Dawson told the JC.
Mr Dawson, whose family are members of Barnet Synagogue, began drawing from an early age and went on to study at Camberwell College of Arts and Chelsea College of Arts.
He was chosen in 2019 by EA Sports to help renowned boxer Anthony Joshua design a football pitch. Then in 2021, he launched his business creating designs on footballers’ boots.
Career highlights have included personalising boots for West Ham’s Declan Rice with an England flag and three lions, and for Usain Bolt when the sprinter participated in Unicef’s Soccer Aid match.
He also recalls creating hyperrealist portraits of former Arsenal legend Thierry Henry, who was a “lovely guy, always laughing, always smiling” and gave him a signed shirt.