Meet the Temple student cruisin’ across the globe in his Converse

We all know about Converse – we love them, we wear them, and they’re always in style. We all love travel.

This Temple student became Instagram famous for his favorite style and travel documenting Instagram account: @cruisinconverse. Meet Pantelis Solomides, a sophomore, psychology major on the pre-med track at Temple University who is Instagram famous.

Pantelis created his Instagram account the summer before his senior year of high school, when he went on a school trip to the South Pacific which included four major destinations: Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji.

Pantelis originally penned the idea while “thinking of distinctive ways to detail [his] trip through a unique perspective which also reflected [his] own personality and thoughts,” which ultimately led him to combine his interests of photography and travel with his love for the Converse culture.

A firm believer of the idiom “a picture is worth a thousand words,” Pantelis chose Instagram as his social media platform for this travel blog so that “the pictures could speak for themselves.”

Ever since he bought his first pair of Converse his freshman year of high school, he loved them – since Converse “chucks” are deeply embedded in the American pop culture and have been a part of some of its most iconic moments, he felt it was perfect vantage point to his Instagram account. Pantelis goes for a “laid back” vibe and enjoys the idea “that anyone can rock the look[of Converse]” and finds comfort in bringing “a little bit of home with [him] on [his] journeys.”

Pantelis officially hit 1K followers for his Instagram account in January of this year and the official Converse Instagram account (@converse) followed him August 26,2015.

Even the official Converse Instagram page is a fan of his work

Growing up as a first generation Greek-American, Pantelis’ family has always emphasized the “importance of  maintaining [his] Greek roots; so we make an effort to travel back to Cyprus every year.”

He’s also been lucky enough to travel with his parents starting at a young age while they spoke (which they still do) at medical conferences and gave lectures all around the world. Ultimately, Pantelis says he owes it all to his parents and their support and encouragement to travel as much as he can and to always learn as much as he could.

From his account and experiences, Pantelis learned that traveling teaches one about different cultures, mindsets, traditions, history, and helps educate on to  appreciate both yourself and other people all over the world. His favorite part about his Instagram account is that he gets to share his cherished experiences with the world but he also enjoys the editing aspect of it, and appreciates his artistic freedom and being able to balance the colors and shades in his pictures to depict the moods and vibes he goes for.

As far as the future of this account, Pantelis has plans to continue his travels to California where he has accepted  an internship for the summer.

“Who knows maybe I will be crossing some oceans as well this summer. You will  just have to wait and see.”

His aspirations for his account include being able to team up with Converse one day and share his travel experiences with even more people around the world.