Sneaker freak takes on shoe business

Turning a life-long obsession into an ambition, Andrew Henry is seeing his sneaker drawings step off the drawing board.

Henry, the one man band behind Yours sneakers, had been collecting sneakers for almost two decades.

"I think I've been collecting for about 15-20 years now, and you know, whenever I bought a pair of sneakers I'd always examine them and just see ways to improve them," he told TV ONE's Breakfast show.

Now, instead of coveting shoes, he is creating his own pared-back, clean cut designer sneakers.

His vision of the perfect shoe, as described on his website, is "understated, clean, and simple. The purist's sneaker".

But getting his vision turned into cold-hard rubber and leather was the hardest part, he said.

"The biggest challenge would have to be transferring it from a design from my computer to something I could hold, you know," said Henry.

"The thing I hate most about my job is dealing with the factory, you have to be so specific."

Henry, the son of Sir Graham Henry, keeps his shoes exclusive, with only around one hundred shoes made in each design.

"I don't want to be the likes of Nike or Adidas, because my shoes are quite limited, and I want to keep it like that," he said.

"I want to be stocked in Tokyo, London, Paris you know and all the rest - just make a name for myself."

While the idea and the final product belong entirely to Henry, he said a friend came up with the brand name 'Yours'.

"A friend actually came up with it for me, he said "it's all yours", and it makes sense to me because I've done it all on my own pretty much," he said.

Henry said it can be tough going solo on his footwear project, but he has some "really talented friends" that help him out - as well as family.