How to Pay for a Custom AF1 Commission Safely

Paying safely for a custom AF1 commission comes down to one simple principle: use a payment method that leaves a record and confirm the order in writing before the money moves, especially when you are commissioning from another country and cannot simply walk into a shop to sort out a problem. This matters more here than in most online purchases, because a hand-painted pair is made to order and cannot be resold to someone else if something goes wrong.

Personal payment apps built for splitting a bill between friends, rather than for commerce, are the single biggest risk factor in online sneaker scams according to consumer protection bodies that track this pattern, precisely because they carry no buyer protection and no real transaction record if a seller simply disappears. A studio asking you to pay a stranger through one of these, with nothing else confirming the order, is asking you to take on all of the risk yourself.

This studio's own process is built around leaving that record. Every commission is confirmed over WhatsApp before any money is sent, so the brief, the price and the size are all written down in one place before you pay, and settlement happens by bank transfer, which is traceable on both ends. That written conversation is, in effect, the order confirmation, and it exists specifically so there is something to point back to if any question comes up later.

For an international commission, the same principle applies with one extra layer: confirm currency, the exact amount, and any transfer fees before you send anything, because a mismatch discovered after the fact is far harder to correct across a border than before you have sent the money. The wider practicalities of ordering from abroad, shipping and customs included, are covered in commissioning a pair from outside Pakistan.

You are also entitled to ask exactly how the money is secured before you send it. This studio offers a choice: settle the full amount, or place a Rs 5,000 reservation that holds your place on the bench and is credited in full against the finished pair, with the balance settled before painting begins. Either way, no work of any kind starts before payment is confirmed, which is a deliberate safeguard rather than a formality, laid out fully in do you pay a deposit for a custom AF1.

If a seller anywhere resists writing down the brief, the price or the timeline before asking for payment, that resistance is itself worth treating as an answer. A studio confident in its own process has no reason to keep the order verbal only, and the wider pattern of what an actual scam looks like is set out directly in how to avoid a custom AF1 scam.

None of this should make paying for a commission feel complicated. It is a short checklist: get it in writing, pay by a traceable method, and confirm the exact amount before you send it, and any legitimate studio will work with you on all three without hesitation.

Ask us to confirm your brief, your price and your size in writing before you pay. It costs nothing to ask and it is the safest thing you can do.