Faith Scholl

Only months on the job as CEO of the Downtown Development Authority, Kevin Blanchard had already begun driving through downtown every morning, as he describes it, like a parent checking in on a sleeping newborn. On a Sunday two years ago, it was not good. A steel fence surrounding the newly opened playground at Parc Sans Souci was damaged along Taylor Street. At about 2:30 a.m. a car had crashed into it, got stuck and left tire marks on the street trying to back out.

Lafayette native Colin Duhon began working as a traveling nurse on the island of Guam at the Guam Regional Medical City hospital 10 months before Super Typhoon Sinlaku wreaked havoc on the island. Since the storm, work has been more challenging. While the storm did not directly hit Guam, the damage when it passed earlier this month was widespread. At the hospital, now it’s about the storm’s aftermath.

From pen marks to intricate designs, customizing sneakers is nothing new. Popularized by hip-hop culture, skaters, and athletes in the late 1990s and early 2000s, people have used shoes as a unique form of self-expression for a long time. But now it’s bigger than ever. Visibility from pop culture grew the market for custom shoes, transforming a hobby into a professional art form.