Wednesday, July 9, 2025
Evan Taveras, a ninth grade student at Memorial Junior High School, is one of Valley Stream’s youngest entrepreneurs. His clients are famous athletes such as Yankee outfielder Jazz Chisholm Jr. and boxer Amanda Serrano. He offers a creative service: he adds colorful paintings to athletes’ hats, cleats and other accessories.
Shoe painting is Evan’s main trade. He first began painting shoes for his friends after watching YouTube videos about similar artists at 11, during the Covid pandemic.
“I wanted to make shoes as well,” he said. “I asked my mom if I could get a pair of shoes, I got some markers and painted my first pair for my best friend.”
After posting images of the shoes on Instagram, a surge of orders flooded his inbox.
“I’m so honored to be doing this because I never thought that this would be this big,” he said. “I always thought that I was just gonna do that one pair for my friend, and then, and then I was not expecting, like, for me to blow up and for a bunch of people to start asking for a pair.
“I’m super happy to have worked with all these like customers, MLB players, Foot Locker and all that stuff,” he continued. “I’m thankful for those opportunities, and I hope to collaborate more with them in the future.”
Evan’s paintings are a combination of original ideas as well as references and requested themes from customers.
“It’s off the cuff,” he said. “I like to put my own spin on the designs I do.”
Melissa Taveras, Evan’s mother and manager, coordinates with high-profile clients in the athletic field.
“He was commissioned to do hats and bases for Citi Field,” she said. “He does the artwork, and I do the behind the scenes work.” Citi Field is home to the New York Mets.
Melissa saw potential in Evan’s work after his first pair of painted shoes.
“We’re gonna buy a pair of shoes, and that’s gonna be your best friend’s birthday gift whether they look ugly or not,” she joked. “And they really came out amazing. I posted them on that page, and we started interacting with other artists, and people started reaching out to him.”
These painting projects played an important role in getting through the era of remote schooling due to Covid-19.
“As a young kid going through the pandemic, you were trying to figure out what to do with your time, because we were always home and stuff,” Melissa said. “He wasn’t online, or he wasn’t on the computer or playing video games. He was really becoming an expert in his craft and growing his business, and the opportunities started to come.
“We’re proud of him, and he’s a great inspiration, especially to his siblings,” she continued. “He has two brothers and a sister, and they really look up to him.”
Evan plans on continuing to create art for the foreseeable future, but his ultimate goal is to be the one wearing cleats on the field.
“I want to be an MLB player and customize my own cleats too,” he said. “That would be super cool.”
Valley Stream Central’s baseball coach Michael Barone has seen Evan grow as an athlete and a teammate on the Eagles junior varsity squad. Evan was on the team this season.
“What amazes me about Evan is that even though he has so much going on with his artwork is that he’s still able to relate to his peers around him, which shows you how mature he is as a person,” he said. “I would say he’s very good at being a teammate and being present with his teammates.”
Barone has high hopes for Evan’s future.
“With the correct guidance, and if he continues on the path that he’s on, the sky is the limit,” he said.
Evan can be found on Instagram at
@EvanTheArtist.
