Concept by Can You Kicks It. Not affiliated with Isaiah Rashad or any brand.
A Fan Concept: The Shoe That Does Not Exist
This is a fan concept by Can You Kicks It. The shoe does not exist. The article is not affiliated with Isaiah Rashad, Top Dawg Entertainment, Warner, Steven Harrington, Converse or any other brand. Nothing here is for sale.
Isaiah Rashad's It's Been Awful landed on 1 May 2026: 16 tracks, his first LP in 5 years, and the record that brought him back after The House Is Burning. He has never had a sneaker collaboration or a footwear campaign. This fan concept imagines an Isaiah Rashad sneaker built from 6 design elements, each one traced to a specific, verifiable detail from his life, his family or the album itself. The shoe is a portrait, not a product.
That is the organising idea. Every element you will see here has a named source: a quote, a photograph, a family instrument, a tour name. If it cannot be sourced, it is not on the shoe.
It's Been Awful: The Album That Earns This Concept
Isaiah Rashad's It's Been Awful is his third studio album. It arrived on 1 May 2026 on Top Dawg Entertainment, 16 tracks deep, with the lead single "Same Shit" out ahead of it. SZA appears on "BOY IN RED". Julian Sintonia features on "DO I LOOK HIGH?" and Dominic Fike on "CAMERAS". His brother Tim produced "THE NEW SUBLIME" and "DO I LOOK HIGH", keeping the record inside the family.
The title comes from a plain place. In his NPR Music interview, Isaiah Rashad put it simply:
I think on a human level it's been pretty f***ed up.
The record is his first LP in 5 years, after The House Is Burning in 2021. That gap matters. He spoke about what changed in the same NPR Music conversation: "I feel like, up until this point, I probably was being 88% honest at face with everything." And then: "And then now it's more like a hundred." Those 2 lines sit at the centre of this concept. You will find them later, reduced to one number on the tongue.
On the cycles that shape his work and life, he told NPR Music: "I guess it all feeds into each other. I try not to give one particular thing too much power." The album holds that tension without resolving it. The concept shoe does the same.
From Chattanooga to TDE: The Backstory in Short Beats
Isaiah Rashad Joel McClain was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1991. His mother, a hairdresser, raised him. He grew up in a family band: his brother Tim played trombone, another brother played tuba, and he played clarinet. "And I play the clarinet," he told The Fader. 2 brass instruments and a reed. That detail comes back on the shoe and in the box.
A stepbrother lent him OutKast's ATLiens, and he started rapping from there. He signed to TDE in 2013. The Cilvia Demo EP arrived in January 2014. The Sun's Tirade followed in 2016. The House Is Burning came in 2021. It's Been Awful, his third studio album, landed in 2026.
He calls his genre "Indie Horror." On his process, he has said: "I make a bunch of mini-projects all the time," and "I just keep going, trying to build the world." The world-building is the point. This concept shoe is one more room in it.
The Look That Sets the Brief
When The Fader met Isaiah Rashad for lunch in New York, he wore black sweats from head to toe. He had 32 gold teeth, full replacements, not temporary grills. On what they mean, he told The Fader: "It definitely differentiates on purpose. Like an homage to my heritage or the region I'm from."
The album cover, shot by Matt Miller, shows him sitting on a red carpet in a sparse room.
For the vinyl release, he worked with Los Angeles artist Steven Harrington on a gatefold 2LP in swirl vinyl across 2 colourways. One of them is the Uncolored Edition, a black and white pressing based on Harrington's original 6x6 foot painted canvas.
Black sweats. Gold teeth. A red carpet. Swirl vinyl. Those 4 details write the brief for the shoe.
The Concept, Piece by Piece
The concept is built on 6 design elements. Each one is unlocked by a specific, verifiable detail from Isaiah Rashad's life, his record or his family. The silhouette is the Converse Chuck 70 Hi: a plain black canvas high-top on a cream rubber midsole with a thin black stripe, the closest shoe to black sweats from head to toe. The Chuck Taylor All Star ankle patch sits in its usual place on the inner side.
The upper is black canvas with black laces. Nothing loud. The colour comes from 3 places only: the toe, the eyelets and the inside of the shoe.
This shoe does not exist. There is no price, no release date, no affiliation with any brand. What follows is the breakdown, piece by piece.
"100" on the Tongue
The tongue carries one small black woven label with one number on it, in white: "100".
The source is the NPR Music interview. He said he "probably was being 88% honest at face with everything" before, "And then now it's more like a hundred." That line can only read as a percentage of honesty, and the tongue keeps only its end point. No slogan, no full quote. Just the number he landed on.
The Gold Toe Cap
The rubber toe cap is a soft metallic gold, the brightest thing on an otherwise black shoe. It follows Isaiah Rashad's 32 gold teeth, full replacements, not temporary grills.
His own words carry the design rationale. He told The Fader: "It definitely differentiates on purpose. Like an homage to my heritage or the region I'm from." The gold toe is the same gesture translated into a shoe. It sits at the front, where it is seen first.
Clarinet-Key Eyelets
The eyelets are polished silver with slightly raised rims, shaped like the key rings on a clarinet. They run the full length of the lacing.
They trace back to the family band: his brother Tim on trombone, another brother on tuba, and Isaiah Rashad on clarinet. "And I play the clarinet," he told The Fader. The trombone player of that band went on to produce 2 tracks on It's Been Awful. The eyelets keep the instrument he played on every lace-up.
The Deep Red Lining
A deep red lining runs inside the shoe, visible at the collar and down across the footbed. It follows the red carpet on the cover of It's Been Awful: Matt Miller's photograph shows Isaiah Rashad sitting on it in a sparse room.
From the outside, the shoe is black. The red shows only at the opening of the collar, a strip of colour behind the black canvas. The rest of it is for the person wearing the shoe.
The Lil Sunny Heel Patch
On the heel, a small rectangular rubber patch carries a black-and-white swirl, after the Uncolored Edition of the It's Been Awful gatefold 2LP. That pressing, made with Steven Harrington, is based on his original 6x6 foot painted canvas. The patch carries the Converse star and, below it, "Lil Sunny" in small white letters.
Lil Sunny is the name Isaiah Rashad's tours have carried since 2017, from the Lil Sunny Tour to Lil Sunny's Awful Road Trip in 2026, whose second world leg marks 10 years of The Sun's Tirade. The patch puts that touring name and the vinyl's swirl in one place.
The Box
A black box, lined in deep red felt, after the red carpet on the album cover. The lid carries the black-and-white swirl of the Uncolored Edition, the same pattern as the heel patch, at full size.
Inside, next to the shoes, sits a single clarinet reed in a small clear case, for the family band and the clarinet he played in it.
A white card sits alongside the reed. It reads: "I just keep going, trying to build the world." That is how he described his way of working to The Fader. No further explanation needed. He named the world; the card marks the door.
What a Collab Shoe Has to Do
A collab shoe works when it tells a story only that artist could tell. Design elements that could belong to anyone are decoration. Elements that could only belong to him are biography.
Every element in this concept has a named source. The black sweats. Isaiah Rashad's gold teeth and his own words about heritage. The "88% honest" line and the hundred it became. The red carpet on the cover. The swirl vinyl he made with Steven Harrington. The family band he grew up in. The Lil Sunny name on his tours. The concept stays with those details. It does not reach for the hard parts of the story. The shoe is a portrait of the work and the family, not a motif of what the record cost him.
This is a fan concept by Can You Kicks It, not a product, not a proposal, not an announcement. If you want to see what this format looks like for a different artist, read the Frankie Pulitzer fan concept.
Look up the Converse Chuck 70 Hi in Can You Kicks It and see what real pairs are worth today.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Isaiah Rashad?
Isaiah Rashad Joel McClain was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1991. He signed to TDE in 2013 and is known for the Cilvia Demo EP, The Sun's Tirade and The House Is Burning. His third studio album, It's Been Awful, arrived on 1 May 2026.
Is there a real Isaiah Rashad sneaker?
No. There has never been an Isaiah Rashad sneaker or footwear campaign. This article is a fan concept by Can You Kicks It and is not affiliated with Isaiah Rashad, TDE, Converse or any other brand. The shoe does not exist and is not for sale.
What is It's Been Awful about?
It's Been Awful is Isaiah Rashad's third studio album, released 1 May 2026 on TDE, his first LP in 5 years. In his own words from his NPR Music interview: "I think on a human level it's been pretty f***ed up." The record is 16 tracks and features SZA, Julian Sintonia and Dominic Fike.
What does Lil Sunny mean on Isaiah Rashad's tours?
Isaiah Rashad's tours have carried the name Lil Sunny since 2017. The 2026 tour is Lil Sunny's Awful Road Trip, with a second leg marking 10 years of The Sun's Tirade.