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Flora Fadzai Sibanda, Chronicle Reporter
FROM an early age, Mr Sibangisweni Moyo (36) has always loved playing with paint, giving life to old things by adding colour and the hobby has given birth to an enterprise that is now his source of livelihood.

Mr Moyo recycles old sneakers by adding some animation on them using paint to make them look new.

Northlea High School

He says he started painting when he was a pupil at Northlea High School.

Mr Moyo said he was a paper painter, but after realising that a lot of youths now appreciate paint on clothes he decided to try painting sneakers.

“I have always loved painting from a young age. No one taught me from a professional level as I am self-taught. I used to paint charts at school for my art corner at Northlea High School. I used to paint on paper but after a while I realised a lot of youths were not interested in paper paint. So I took an experiment and tried painting one of my old sneakers. I was impressed with the outcome so I decided to venture into it as a business. I see painting as a hobby even though I now make a living out of it as I enjoy working with paint,” said Mr Moyo.

Mr Sibangisweni Moyo

He said he collects old sneakers that people no longer want, washes them and paints them for resell.

“l go around collecting old sneakers. I collect them from different suburbs. From there l wash them so that l can remove the dirt. I paint the sneakers using different animation cartoons such Mickey Mouse. I usually use cartoons that are trending and are loved by a lot of youths.

Moyo’s artistically painted takkies

I buy the paint from hardware shops as it is very cheap that side. I spend something like five hours on one sneaker. If you are doing this, you should be patient because at times you might mess and ruin the cartoon that you are working on. There are some people however who come with their sneakers and I decorate them,” Mr Moyo said.

Mr Moyo said his prices vary depending on the design that one wants and the condition of the sneaker.

One of Moyo’s products

“Prices for the sneakers that I sell vary on the type of design that is on the sneaker and the condition of the sneaker. There are some sneakers that are painted with a plain colour. These ones are usually US$5. Then there are ones which are painted using animation cartoons these are usually US$12 as I would have spent a lot of time trying to get the painting right. For someone who comes with their own sneakers I usually charge US$3 just for my labour,” said Mr Moyo.