San Antonio Needs to Embrace Jake Denklafs

BY: KEVIN CASTRO

Jacob Danklefs took a break from his restoration of a couple of pairs of Kid Robot Air Max 1’s (AM1). He was finishing lacing up the two pairs when he leaned over and picked up his dog’s stuffed hedgehog toy, squeaked it a few times and threw it out of the workroom. A cojack, a corgi mixed with Jack Russell, jumped out from behind him chasing after the toy. The sound of her claws scratching against the wood floor followed her out.

“That’s Penny,” Danklefs said. “She’s the third employee, but she’s not very good.”

Danklefs, 34, created and operates Dank & Co, a two-man operation specializing in the customization of footwear or other items that “achieve satisfaction to the customer.” He works with Phil Macias, known as the “co” in Dank & Co, in a workroom located in his house on the Northwest side of San Antonio.

It is in this room that Danklefs and Macias are able to create some of the most coveted customs in the sneaker world for some of the biggest clients. Danklefs has worked on customs for Lebron James, Jay-Z and the San Antonio Spurs. His work has been featured on popular sneaker websites such as KicksOnFire.com and Highsnobiety.com.

Danklefs started lacing the AM1s again as Penny left the room and reflected on how big-name clients changed everything for him.

“Doing stuff for Lebron was, like, amazing. It was just, yeah,” Danklefs said with a chuckle. “It’s hard to explain that, because, you build up to that and I didn’t have a chance. It just, bam! It set the tone for everything.”

Danklefs has milder reactions these days as he has shifted to a more business-minded approach toward collaborations.

“Now it’s not a big deal. Now it’s just a part of the norm,” Danklefs said. “If I go a month without a major collab then I’m like, shit, business is down.”

One frequent issue Danklefs and Macias both encounter is a loss of business due to Dank & Co’s notoriety. Both acknowledge they are busy and both acknowledge they are still open to any and all business, especially local involvement.

“I get a lot of people that are just afraid to hit me up,” Danklefs said. “Like they don’t want to bother me or, like, it’s just weird.”

“I get that too,” Macias said. “People are like, ‘yeah I was going to email you, but you seem busy.’ Well yeah, we’re busy but...”

“You could’ve had your shit by now,” Danklefs said with a laugh.

Danklefs and Macias were both working on projects for clients who were based outside of San Antonio.

Local involvement is also an issue Danklefs wishes the sneaker community in San Antonio would address. He has noticed that he gets more support outside of the city than here in town. Danklef sees that San Antonio’s sneaker culture isn’t as “strong” as other cities like Houston or Dallas. Citing the lack of “camaraderie” within the local sneaker community.

For the last 13 years, Danklefs has helped organize popular sneaker showcases here in town such as SNKSUP and the Spurs Sneaker Jam. While the former event no longer runs, the latter does with the same intentions.

For Danklefs, it’s important to provide a space for the community to help build on the thriving culture.

“We’ve done shoe shows for the last 12 years. The early ones, like the first four years, we would not allow any buy sell or trade. The sneaker culture was more about getting to know each other, seeing other collections and just hanging out, y’know?”

Danklefs finished lacing and put away the first pair of AM1s back into their box. He noticed Penny had brought back the hedgehog toy and picked it up off the floor. He thought about throwing the toy again but just ended up tossing it to Penny.

In all cities, but mostly San Antonio, Danklefs has noticed sneakers becoming increasingly commercial with the rise of reselling. “It’s different now,” Danklefs said. “Back then it was rare to find someone who collected. Now everyone buys shoes and everyone wants to sell them. It’s hard to tell who really cares sometimes.”

For Danklefs, shoes are more than just investments. For him, they are important relics of a mainstream culture that “tell stories.” In addition to shoe customizations, Danklefs also restores classic pairs. Sometimes even going the extra mile to make sure clients have that “feeling.”

He leaned over his desk and showed off a picture of a pair of Huarache 2k4’s owned by PJ Tucker, a basketball player for the Houston Rockets. The story behind this pair delighted and frustrated Danklefs. Older shoes tend to wear out over time, even when they aren’t used, so Tucker reached out to Danklefs and asked him to replace the aging soles. By some miracle, Danklefs was able to acquire another pair of the 2k4s in a near-pristine condition but Tucker still wanted the uppers from his pair.

“For whatever reason, this shoe was his lucky shoe,” Danklefs said. “We found a donor, an almost brand-new version of his lucky shoe, and he could’ve just had that one but he wanted his lucky shoe, not that one. It was one of those things that I understood but still battled in my head.”

As Danklefs finished lacing up the second pair of AM1s, he admitted that even after all these years of working with rare shoes, he still gets that feeling he had as a 5-year-old looking at his older brother’s. He remains hopeful for the emergence of a dedicated sneaker community here in San Antonio so others can one day have the same reaction.

“It’s not often you get multiple pairs of this shoe in the same room,” he said. “But this is what it’s all about, you know. Sharing these shoes and the feelings you get when you see them for the first time. Shoes are art. Art shouldn’t be sitting on a shelf in your closet for nobody to see.”