Wear Your Jewish Pride in Style with Rachel Pollack’s PNT By Ray Customs
If you want to show your Jewish pride in style, look no further than the one-of-a-kind wearable art creations from Rachel Pollack’s PNT by Ray.
A lawyer by day, Rachel (known as Ray by her friends and family) started a shoe-painting side hustle in 2021 after painting Toy Story sneakers for her son’s second birthday. While her business initially featured lots of Disney characters, superheroes, and sports teams, it has since evolved into an unapologetic celebration of Jewish joy. Painting unique Jewish star designs in beautiful shades of blue, Rachel adds her artistic touch to anything from Nikes to Uggs to elegant high heels—Jewish pride that’s fit for any occasion.
Rachel’s hand-painted, custom shoes have been donned by an impressive list of Jewish advocates including Lizzy Savetsky, Montana Tucker, Michael Rapaport, Tessa Veksler, and more. Did I mention comedian (and OG client) Elon Gold just received his tenth pair? Rachel even painted shoes for Nova survivor Ziv Abud and former hostage Eliya Cohen for the bride and groom to wear on their wedding day!
Don’t have a shoe fetish? No problem. Rachel can paint and bedazzle Jewish pride onto wallets, purses, sweatsuits, jean jackets, hats, and Stanley water cups. She even created the perfect tiny accessories to transform your ordinary Labubu into…LaJewJew! (Complete with its own pair of custom Israeli flag Nikes, of course.)
As Rachel puts it, she’s in the business of “spreading Jewish pride one paint stroke at a time.”
Leah Grossman: Hi, Rachel! Your work is amazing. Looking through your creations, there was a pretty clear shift to Jewish pride gear after October 7th. Did your business evolve organically, or was it a concerted effort to use your art as a way to spread some Jewish joy?
Rachel Pollack: Hi, thank you so much Leah! The shift started organically after I made the first pairs of my now-best-selling Israeli flag sneakers for my son’s preschool teachers for Hanukkah in December 2023. They loved them so much I started making them for more people, and when I saw how much it meant to people to display their Jewish pride I really leaned into it and made it my mission. My orders grew and grew, and soon I was working day and night to send Jewish-themed sneakers all over the world!
Leah: How has leaning into your Jewish identity affected your business?
Rachel: I absolutely had to make a conscious decision whether to lean in and potentially lose a whole segment of potential customers and followers, or play it down to try to appeal to a broader audience. Ultimately I decided that I wanted to be unapologetically me, and I am someone who is proud to be Jewish, to support Israel, and to do what I can to uplift the Jewish community. There have definitely been periods of time in which I faced scary comments on my posts and I’m sure there were people who unfollowed when I started leaning in to my Jewish identity, but what I’ve lost in those followers I’ve gained tenfold in incredible, supportive, passionate new followers and customers. If people unfollow or decline to follow because of that, then I don’t want them as a customer anyway!
Leah: You’ve had quite a few notable clients who are making a big impact in the Jewish advocacy space. Have any projects stood out to you as particularly meaningful?
Rachel: I’ve loved making custom products for so many Jewish celebrities, influencers, and advocates, including a project where I gifted sneakers to several students who displayed Jewish pride and bravery on their college campuses. All of these have been incredibly rewarding and exciting in their own ways, but I would have to give the “most meaningful” prizes to the sneakers I’ve made for returned hostages Omer Shem Tov, Eli Sharabi, Eliya Cohen, Yagil Yaakov, and for their families. A particularly meaningful pair was one I made for the brother of Carmel Gat, who was one of the “Beautiful Six” hostages murdered in the tunnels. All of the hostage and hostage family sneakers hold a special place in my heart.
Leah: Do you have any dream clients you’d love to create something for? Let’s manifest it!
Rachel: A few people on my radar that I haven’t gotten to make sneakers for (yet) are Noa Argamani, Yarden Bibas, Noa Tishby, and Omer Adam. As a baseball fan, I am dying to make sneakers or cleats for Jewish MLB players who are also playing for the Team Israel baseball team, like Garrett Stubbs and Harrison Bader. Any Philly sports player is always on my bucket list for non-Jewish pairs, too!
Leah: Where did your incredible artistic talent come from? Do you think you’ll ever switch to art full time?
Rachel: I have no idea, I still surprise myself every day! I’ve always had a creative side, but didn’t know I could paint until I tried! And I’ve definitely gotten better with practice over the last few years. I would love to do this full time but I have a law practice as well and unfortunately can’t paint fast enough to retire from that, yet! I am an employment attorney helping clients who have been wrongfully terminated and discriminated against, and it would be difficult to give up that important work, too. Maybe someday!
Leah: For those who might be interested in placing an order, can you share what the process is like?
Rachel: Everything is on Instagram @pntbyray, where there is a linked order form. If you don’t have Instagram, you can email me at pntbyray@gmail.com. You would place an order, send a deposit, and message me so we can discuss the design until it is finalized! Right now my turnaround time is about 8-12 weeks for me to paint and ship, but I try to accommodate reasonable deadlines for special events. For the design, I can replicate a pair I’ve already done, but I also love coming up with something new with my customers!
In a post from 2024, Rachel wrote: “One of the best things so far about making the Israeli flag sneakers has been all the amazing people I’ve met, both in person and in my DMs. I’ve been making sneakers for a few years now, but PNT by Ray’s Jewish pride era has been the most rewarding yet!”
It’s more important than ever for all of us to embrace our Jewish pride era. And thanks to PNT by Ray, we can do it in style.
Rachel—thanks for helping us be loud and proud, one pair of shoes at a time.
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Keep up with Rachel on Instagram.
To place a custom order, email Rachel or fill out an order request form here.
