It’s not unlikely that many students who just graduated Florida Atlantic last Tuesday will spend the next few weeks passing out resumes or settling into their first jobs.

Not Eric Dunn.

Within the same week of graduating with a degree in economics, he announced the launch of a signature sneaker line and showed the first prototype to his followers on Snapchat.

Early Saturday morning at 1 a.m. Dunn — an internet personality who made his claim to fame by making Vine and Snapchat videos while attending Florida Atlantic — released photos and videos of his first sneaker onto his Snapchat account.

“I’ve always wanted to create my own shoe as a die-hard NBA fan,” Dunn told the UP. “Our initial version won’t be a basketball shoe, rather a low top walking-outdoor shoe. It was a surprise from my dad on Friday.”

Dunn’s father gifted him with a prototype by Ed Coleman, the founder and CEO of A-Game Global. Coleman’s website features a shop with golf shoes as well as a ‘Kustomz’ page with sneakers similar to Dunn’s, offered in different university colors.

“With a manufacturing location and warehouse already in place, I’ll be working with him [Coleman] to come up with the final design for my own personalized shoe and in the future come up with many other variations of shoes,” Dunn said.

For the time being, he plans to have four generations of the sneaker.

Dunn’s prototype is a white, leather, casual sneaker with gray accents, black laces and silver hardware. The side of the shoe features a black circular logo with Dunn’s initials.

On the prototype, the front and back of the shoes have snaps where white straps with sayings can snap atop.

Dunn’s feature straps with the phrases “DUNN 2016” across the front and “I DUNN DID IT” and “GODFATHER” across the heels.

“I did a poll on Twitter to see how my audience liked them and we are leaning towards making them an optional feature,” Dunn said. “The straps will come in different colors, they are removable and we will offer a feature to add personalized text.”

According to Twitter, the poll ultimately had 6,315 responses with 52% leaning toward no straps, 20% wanting both straps, 18% saying just the back strap and 10% voting just the front strap.

Dunn said the shoes don’t have a name yet, but they do have a price. They will likely be priced somewhere between $69-$100 depending on how customizable the final product ends up being.

This falls in line with Coleman’s ‘Kustomz,’ which run for the same price on his website. Dunn says the shoes will be manufactured in China but other accessories will be made in Daytona Beach, Florida.

As far as a timeline goes, Dunn hopes to see them on sale through his website as soon as possible. “I have been working hard every day, getting feedback to create a shoe a lot of people will like. I know you can’t please everybody,” he said. “My goal is to make products available to not only my fans but people who may not even know me but like what I’m selling.”

Though the straps are still iffy according to the Twittersphere, Dunn said reactions have been supportive for the most. “It felt good getting a high amount of positive feedback because believe me, people on my social media channels do not hold back when they don’t like something nor does anyone on the internet.”

Now that he’s graduated from FAU, Dunn said he’s just getting started. “I have a lot going on and more I want to do. My company, Eric Dunn Enterprises LLC, will be featuring two brand new products coming up this fall,” he said. “I plan to continue my career — yes, it is a career — as a content creator, to increase my following even more while collaborating and appealing to more brands, sometimes it feels like a full-time job.”

Currently, Dunn has over 124,000 followers on Twitter — for context, fellow FAU grad and NFL Dallas Cowboy Lucky Whitehead has 26,000 — and 3.1 million followers on Vine.

Dunn, who still has goals to be in TV and movies, told the UP he pursued a degree in economics to be taken seriously since he’s known for cracking jokes.

“In my social media market, a lot of ‘Viners’ dropped out of school to pursue their entertainment and acting careers in Los Angeles. I was having fun in school at the time and wanted to challenge myself to a degree, while inspiring and motivating my generation,” Dunn said.

“You can take everything away from me except my education.”

You can follow Dunn on Twitter for updates on his shoe line.
Emily Bloch is the senior editor at FAU’s University Press. You can email her at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter.