Hi! Welcome to Make Thrift Buy, a show where you send me pictures of clothing that you've
found on the internet, and I try to recreate them.
About 2 weeks ago, Jacky Owen sent me this picture of these LED light-up shoes, and challenged
me to recreate them. And at first, I was totally skeptical - I thought that you would need
a degree in electrical engineering or at least some basic knowledge of how electronics work
- which I don't have - to be able to recreate these. But no. No no no! Guess what?
I then came up with a way of making light up shoes that doesn’t require any knowledge
of electronics, that should actually be really easy…? I think? I mean - I don't want to
talk too soon, because I haven't tried it out yet, but I think these are going to work
really well. So - let's begin!
I started out by getting myself a pair of shoes.
And I didn’t own any shoes that were appropriate for this project, but I found these for $10
at the thrift shop… and gave them a little clean before putting them on my table.
For this project, I chose shoes that are hi-tops and have a large tongue.
The first thing I did was to measure around the circumference of the shoes.
This came out at 25 and a half inches, or 65 centimeters, so the lights I get will need
to be at least this long.
The next thing I did was to find myself some "LED strip lights".
These are strips of lights with adhesive backing that you’re actually, apparently, able to
cut up. Because I don’t really understand how electronics
work, I made sure to get a set that already had a battery box attached, so I wouldn't
have to do any connecting of wires. The strip lights are also waterproof, which
I figured would be a good idea seeing as I want to put them onto shoes.
Because the lights came in either 50, 100 or 150 cm, and the circumference of my shoes
is 65cm, I chose the 100cm lights. And I got two sets, because I have two shoes.
So, when the lights arrived, I checked that they worked – each set required 3 double A batteries.
Awesome!
They also came with this clicker to let me change modes and colours.
So now I just have to figure out the best way of getting all of this onto these shoes.
So the first thing I needed to do was cut the lights down to the right size.
So I looked this up in HEAPS of places whether or not you could cut these, and all the websites
I found said yes, you can, but – I’m still terrified about cutting through something with wires in it.
So… here goes nothing.
Oh thank goodness, they didn’t explode. But do they still work??
YESSSSS.
ALRIGHT! So, on the inside of the shoe, I’m going to super glue the clicker down.
So I basically just put a bit of super glue on the back, and I held it down onto the shoe
for a couple of minutes.
Now, the strip lights also have this adhesive on the back – I just have to peel the backing
paper off first. I connect the lights back up to the clicker,
and using both the adhesive on the back of the lights, AND some super glue to make SUPER
sure that they’ll stay on, I attach the lights all the way around the base of the shoe.
And once that’s done, I need to figure out what to do with this battery pack.
I thread it up into the shoe like this, and I think that I’m going to make a pouch for
the battery pack on the inside of shoe’s tongue.
So I grab myself some fabric that’s similar to what the shoe is made out of – this is
just some scrap PVC fabric that I had lying around.
I draw a rectangle around my battery pack, with about an extra inch on each side and
cut this out. Now I also don’t want the battery pack to
be uncomfortable while I’m wearing the shoes, so I’m going to put some batting into the
inside of the pouch. I used some fabric glue to stick some folded-up batting onto the back
of the PVC material.
Then I place this bit of fabric onto the inside of the shoe’s tongue. I use to needle and
thread to sew it on down the sides like this, and then after making sure that the battery
actually fits inside, I sew the bottom of the pouch down like this.
And while sewing, I made sure not to stick my needle all the way through the whole shoe
tongue – just through this inside layer of fabric, because I don’t want the stitches
to be visible from the outside of the shoe.
I then make a little closing for the pouch with another small rectangle of PVC – which
I attach like this. And then I glue on some Velcro strips so that
the pouch can open and close like this. Now, I just need to make this wire here a
little bit less visible. So basically what I do is to cut out another
strip of black PVC, wrap it around the wire, and glue it down onto the shoe, again using
my good friend superglue.
So – do the shoes work?
[Loud dubstep music]
[Grocery store sounds and shopping centre music]
"hmmm, beans..."
[Loud dubstep music resumes]
So - my conclusion is a definite: Make! [scissor snipping sound effect]
If you want light-up shoes, make these for yourself because it's actually really easy
and pretty cheap to do.
[Dubstep music resumes]
Okay, so I just want to add a little addendum to this video. So I made these shoes about
a week ago now and, um, I kinda wanted to road test them and see how they lasted. And
I've worn them a few times and unfortunately, while it's all good around here, the lights
stopped working here. And I've figured out it's actually because
of how my foot bends when I walk, it's actually kind of torn the connector between the LED
lights here, and it's just with this shoe - the other one is still totally fine.
So, these are actually just too cool, and I need to buy more [lights] and fix this - I
know how I can fix this but it is going to require me buying more lights. But, if you
are going to try this out, what I'm going to be doing is just placing this strip of
lights more strategically around the shoe so that the bit that joins the different LED
light sections isn't where my foot is going to be bending. OR use shoes like flatforms
(creepers) whose soles won't bend at all. So I hope that's a helpful tip if you do try
these out yourself. And if you do try this out then hashtag with
#diyannika - because I'd absolutely LOVE to see how you go!
Give this video a thumbs up if you enjoyed it, and I'll see you all next time. Bye!