Email This   Larger Font      Print This   Smaller Font Advertisement   Alex Hartman of the Vancouver Volcanoes draws designs on shoes and has been marketing them locally. Hartman says he prefers to work on leather shoes. His process includes pencil, permanent pen and a water proof spray for finish. Hartman’s designs are iconic and high contrast.

Tuesday, April 29, 2008
By Nathan Childs For The Columbian

The basketball player pulls a stack of newspaper clippings from his gym bag and smiles as he shares them.

“The articles are in Indonesian, so good luck reading them,” Alex Hartman says.

The 6-foot-7 forward for the Vancouver Volcanoes recently took a month off from the Volcanoes to work in Jakarta. While in Asia, he played for Satria Muda, a professional basketball team. Hartman returned to the Volcanoes April 12.

“A lot of people told me I shouldn’t go because it has the highest rate for American attacks,” Hartman said.

While in Indonesia, Hartman averaged 21 points and 6.3 rebounds. Hartman also collected MVP honors while helping his team to the Southeast Asia Basketball Association (SEABA) Championship Cup.

“Everyone told me not to go, except my agent and people back there (Indonesia),” says Hartman about the decision to play in a foreign country to which Americans are discouraged to travel.

Hartman started in the first game of the season for the Volcanoes, March 15 in a 129-115 loss to Snohomish.

Then the phone rang and he had the opportunity to travel to Asia.

“I said, ‘I’m going to walk by faith right now,’ ” he said. “I got the ticket. I flew there and it was probably the best experience of my life.”

Hartman said the competition in the SEABA cup was better than the competition he faced while playing for Concordia University of Oregon.

“If you want to know the truth, they’re actually very good,” Hartman says about the overseas competition.

Satria Muda rode Hartman to victory in the Championship game against the Philippines. Hartman had 27 points and nine rebounds in the 93-85 win.

IBL career begins

Hartman averaged 15.8 points in his first season for Vancouver after being recruited straight from Concordia.

The Cavaliers “lost in the first round of the playoffs and the next day, I came to practice,” Hartman said.

Hartman looks forward to settling back into his role with the Volcanoes.

“Last year was an up and down experience we lost a lot of games,” he said. “We didn’t have the drive and unselfishness we have this year.”

The Volcanoes have won their last nine games, a string that started while Hartman was overseas.

“Even though I was going to leave the team, they said, ‘There will be a spot for you when you get back.’ ” 

Hartman said he believes he has been blessed with the chance to play for the Volcanoes.

“I have never been part of a tighter group of people,” he said. “I was happy that I was allowed to be a part of this team.”

The Volcanoes have been averaging 126.4 points a game in the fast-paced format of the International Basketball League (IBL). As they approach the mid-point of the season, Hartman looks to keep the streak going.

“If you have the athletes and no one is selfish, then you’re unstoppable,” he said. “Everyone on the court is talented. ... This is the first team I have ever seen where after a game, no one runs to look at the stats. We make the extra pass. We get dunks. We get threes. We have people banging inside. We are a fun team to watch. You can get behind us.”

Prized possession

Before the trip to Asia and before the 2008 Volcanoes season, Hartman had been going through some rocky times.

Hartman had a stint playing in Germany where he averaged 22.9 points, but he had a falling out with his team.

“I found out they didn’t want me to leave the team and get a better job,” Hartman said.

He came home to Portland and his life started to slip out of focus.

“In the month I got back from Germany I lost a relationship with my girlfriend.  Then I had three friends pass away.”

Hartman struggled.

“All of it hit me,” he said. “I was upset. ... I wasn’t playing basketball.”

Hartman says a return to faith and a need for change gave him the courage to make the trip.

“The day before I left, I got baptized,” Hartman says, “This was a new start.”

Hartman held up the medal he had won while in Indonesia, placed it on the stack of clippings and said: “This is my prized possession right now.”

Hartman reflected about how his home was full of medals and trophies, won by his mother.

“My mom was an Olympic swimmer,” he said. “She is an eight time All-American. I have no medals at my house. This means more to me than people realize.”

Artistic pursuits

Hartman works for Adidas in the test ware program.  He draws designs on shoes and has been marketing them locally.

“I do animations of all my teachers. I can make anybody look funny,” Hartman said, describing his style as he began to pull shoes out of his gym bag. “I put those together and I draw on shoes.”

Hartman placed the first shoe next to his medal and clippings.

“They give me shoes as blank canvases and I get to do what I want to do,” he said. “This is one of the first shoes we (Adidas) did.”

Hartman pulls another shoe out of a box. The shoe has a spider web design with various beetle looking bugs drawn along the sides, a design Hartman said is called “Creepy Crawlers.”

Hartman says he prefers leather shoes. His process includes pencil, permanent pen and a water proof spray for finish. His designs are iconic and high contrast.

“This one says King of the Court,” Hartman said, displaying a low-top sneaker with a character of a basketball player in two versions with religious symbols. “I did the Christian version and I have a friend who is Buddhist.”

Hartman said that his friends are his biggest clients and that many of them collect the shoes to put on the shelf.

“Some of my friends don’t even wear them. ... If a kid gets a hold of a nice pair of kicks, he holds on to them,” Hartman said.

Hartman looks forward to someday getting a masters degree in art, but for now he is just interested in winning with the Volcanoes and working on his basketball career.

“I wanted to,” Hartman says about a career as an artist. “I thought about doing it, but to tell you the truth, I didn’t see the money.”