DIY, or how to make custom shoes with a minimum of skills?

Customization, that is, personalizing a particular product according to your tastes, is a great way to create your own unique shoe design or give a second life to your favorite sneakers. Many artists involved in painting and decorating kicks using a paintbrush can “conjure up” amazing designs.

However, when we do not want to have an elaborate painting on the shoe, such as the hero of a favorite cartoon, we can successfully do the personalization ourselves even if creating handicrafts is not our strongest point. So how to make custom shoes with a minimum of skills?

What are the best shoes to customize?

The basis of good customization is the right footwear. The first personalization will be difficult on nubuck or mesh sneakers. It is best to choose those made of leather, as painting them will be the easiest.

Shoe models, Which will certainly work well in such a role are white Air Force 1 , Air Jordan 1 i Nike Dunk Low. These pairs have a sizable area that will be decorated. They have also been divided into special panels, which allows you to create a unique design.

Where to start customizing shoes?

If you decide to paint your shoes, remember that the products you will use play a very important role. It should also be noted that not every paint will be suitable for every material.

Before performing customization, check which preparations will be suitable for our shoes. We can gain such knowledge by reading professional blogs or websites dedicated to the subject, such as angelusdirect.com or tarrago.com.

If we are doing customization on previously used shoes, they should first be thoroughly cleaned. The next step will be to degrease the surface you want to paint (or decorate) with a suitable cleaner – cleaner. If we are doing personalization on freshly purchased shoes we just start it with degreasing.

We can also protect the parts that we will not cover with paint to protect them from accidental dirt or splashing. To do this, seal them with protective tape. On the other hand, when our painting is ready, it needs to be “impregnate” with a dedicated protective agent, or finisher. The market offers products with glossy, satin, normal or matte finishes.

We should also stock up on brushes of different thicknesses. The thinnest ones will serve us for very precise decorations, thicker ones will be used when covering larger areas.

Painting of shoes should be done in a large, well-ventilated room Inaccessible to children. However, it is best to work outdoors, if possible. The table and all areas that cannot get dirty should be properly secured.

Custom suggestions for beginners

When doing customization, we can let our imagination run wild and personalize them to our liking. Here are some suggestions on how to easily decorate shoes in an interesting way.

Create a new color scheme for your shoes

If you customize Air Force 1, Air Jordan 1, orNike Dunk Low You can choose two or three matching colors and arrange them on the panels of the shoes according to your own idea. Such a procedure will allow you to create a unique color scheme that no one else will have.

Embellish the swoosh to add character to your sneakers

Another idea for customizing your shoes is to decorate the swoosh. You can paint a simple pattern like cow patches or flames, or use strong glue to attach small diamonds in the color of your choice. Such decorations are currently very fashionable. The crystals will shimmer beautifully in both sunlight and artificial light.

Your shoes can glow in the dark!

Companies specializing in customization products (such as Angelus and Tarrago) offer glow-in-the-dark paints. You can use them when decorating your shoes. Such painted sneakers are sure to be a hit at any party. In addition, an interesting treatment will be to replace the usual white laces with ones that also glow in the dark. The effect will be unearthly!

Create jewelry to go with your shoes

Another great idea to spruce up your sneakers is to add jewelry. We can take advantage of stores that offer such. These are usually tags or shoelace toppers.

An even better way is to make the ornaments yourself. Just get a set of colorful beads, which can easily be found in stationary stores that sell handicraft products.

Then you need to measure the appropriate length of line or thread, determine the sequence of beads, or bet on a colorful mishmash and finish the “bracelet” with special fasteners so that you can attach the ornament to your shoes. Another option is to string the beads on laces. If you stock up on ones with letters, you can arrange a short inscription on both shoes.

Shoes filled with words

Another suggestion is to cover the shoes with lots of inscriptions. They can be random words or words that have meaning for us : favorite passages from songs or quotes from songs. It is simple to make, and very original and interesting custom.

 

Custom that you make in 15 minutes

If, on the other hand, you do not want to make precise paintings, you can bet on custom “by chance”. All you need to do is scoop a bit of paint on a brush and sprinkle it on your shoes.

Both a design in one color and in several colors will look good. However, remember to protect the parts of the shoe that you do not want to cover with paint before making the decoration.

 

We have presented simple ways to change your ordinary shoes into unique and one-of-a-kind ones. Even people with a minimum of skills can handle them.

If, on the other hand, you have artistic talent and can create precise paintings, you can try to make more elaborate custom designs depicting various characters, animals, plants or patterns. You are limited only by your imagination.