Sharjah24 – AFP: Haider Ali dabs a brush with an iridescent glob of paint and gets to work on a pair of sparkling white trainers -- his latest canvas for a carnival of colour celebrating Pakistani culture.
Pakistan's lorries are renowned for "truck art": candy-coloured murals depicting South Asian animals, celebrities and religious icons.
The tradition transforms the highways and cities into kaleidoscopic processions.
And now Ali -- a veteran truck artist -- has transposed the painting onto sneakers.
"A client came to me from the US asking me to paint shoes," he explained.
"I told him an exorbitant fee to discourage him but he agreed, so I decided to get on with it."
He labours on each pair for up to four days, charging select clients $400 for a set featuring bespoke patterns and motifs.
Since he started painting trainers in January, he has dispatched eight pairs -- to places in Pakistan and abroad -- with new orders arriving every four days after a surge of social media interest.
"The ideas keep coming to me," the 42-year-old mused.
"It's in human nature to decorate ourselves and the things around us."
Cross-legged in his Karachi rooftop studio, he flips a pair of high-top Nikes to reveal the image of a luminous pink hawk and a gazing yellow eye, framed by hypnotic bulbous fringes.
Another pair ready for shipping bears a shimmering peacock.
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