Galaxy Zoom Rookie Gas Mask

Freehand Profit’s forty-third mask — the Galaxy Zoom Rookie — sits as a documented turning point in Gary Lockwood’s ongoing sneaker-to-gas-mask series as the first piece in the catalog to introduce custom resin parts into the construction. This small detail extended the artist’s practice beyond pure cut-and-rebuild sneaker mask and into hybrid sculpture.

The piece is built from a single pair of the Nike Zoom Rookie “Galaxy” — the 2012 release whose cosmic blue-and-purple nebula upper remains one of the most-cited Galaxy-colorways — rebuilt onto a functional gas-mask base. The original shoe combines design elements from the Air Go LWP, Air Flight One, and Air Foamposite One, making this a remix of remixes. The lens, canister, and filter housing all read directly from the Galaxy upper’s palette, with the shoe’s mesh paneling, red stability straps, and lace structure reassembled across the mask’s face plate and head cradle. Hand-sculpted green resin skull detailing sits inside the filter cartridge as the specific debut of the resin-custom-parts technique the catalog would carry forward across the following decade.

Gary Lockwood, known as Freehand Profit, is a Virginia-based artist whose practice transforms iconic sneakers into one-of-one sculptural masks. Since 2010, he has produced more than 200 unique works, each examining the intersection of identity, consumer culture, and contemporary symbolism through the language of footwear. By recontextualizing familiar materials into meticulously constructed objects, Freehand Profit elevates the everyday into something collectible—where craft, concept, and cultural reference converge.