afuraa Razak was chosen as a weartester, where she received a pair of sneakers from US contemporary artist Tom Sachs. Her experience was later incorporated into a month-long New York art show. Photo composite: Instagram/Safuraa Razak
“While testing the shoes, Tom Sachs would give us weekly challenges revolving around his studio philosophies, some involved us wearing our shoes.”For those not familiar with the sneakers scene, a weartester is a person who is handed a pair of unreleased shoes to be worn and tested during a certain duration of time.
“The previous Mars Yards is rare, considered as a ‘holy grail’ within the sneakers community. In addition, this directly involves Nike and the artist himself.” The 33-year-old Malaysian is an architect. Her video application for the weartester programme showed her typical day – from going on a site visit to working in her office, while wearing sneakers, of course.
Safuraa does not see herself as much of a sneakerhead though. She says she just buys what she likes and has probably less than 50 shoes in total.