How to make luminous sneakers?

Luminous sneakers are enjoyed by children, adolescents and even adults. It is fashionable, beautiful and comfortable. Moreover, such shoes make walking along the dark evening streets much safer, because the driver sees a pedestrian wearing such shoes. Many shoe manufacturers offer customers such models. True, they are usually quite expensive. But you can get out of the situation and without much damage to your own wallet. How make luminous sneakers, we will discuss in our article.

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We are looking for a way out of the situation

Before you make luminous sneakers at home, think about why you need them:

• for safety;
• for the sake of fashion;
• want to combine fashion and security.

A method of manufacturing a luminous sneaker entirely depends on the goal. Can be used:

• any reflectors;
• luminous shoelace;
• LED bulbs.

For security

How to make luminous shoes, if you do not want to mess with a soldering iron, but you need drivers to see you? In this case, you do not need to do anything. It is enough to buy 2 reflective tapes in the auto parts store. They fold and hold firmly enough.

Put on your ankles, and go. Fast, cheap and without any problems!

Important! This option also has disadvantages:

• tapes are not fixed and may be lost;
• only the ring around the ankle glows - very primitive.

Other items

But in the same store you can find other reflective elements - stars, flowers, short and long stripes. This already makes it possible to take creative initiative. Very often, such elements have an adhesive layer, so the procedure is extremely simple:

1. Separate one element from the sheet.
2. Remove the protective film from it.
3. Glue to the sneakers.

Important! Do the same with other elements. You can stick them in random order, but nothing prevents you from creating intricate compositions. This method has a drawback - the adhesive layer is not reliable enough, and in wet weather, the glowing stars will peel off quite quickly.

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How to make luminous sneakers at home with your own hands?

Decorated with reflective details, the sneakers can be beautiful and original, but they can’t be called luminous, because they simply reflect the rays that fall on them from lights or car headlights. But if you mount, for example, a neon wire, you get something completely different. True, for this you will have to work hard and acquire some tools and materials in advance.

You need:

• electroluminescent wire;
• inverter;
• battery.

An electroluminescent wire is a thin wire coated with a phosphor. The phosphor begins to glow if an alternating current is brought to it. The battery also provides direct current. Accordingly - you need a converter, that is, an inverter.

Important! Choosing an inverter is a very important point. It must correspond to the wire, that is, its power should be enough to work with a wire of a certain length. However, it should not be too powerful:

• with a weak inverter, the light becomes dim;
• too strong - may damage the wire or even the sneakers.

What else do you need in your work?

Before you make luminous sneakers with your own hands, make sure that the right materials are at hand:

• fishing line;
• textile Velcro;
• additional wires;
• charger if you use LiPo batteries;
• heat shrink tubes;
• connectors
• solder;
• wide elastic.

You will also need some tools:

• soldering iron;
• awl;
• scissors;
• screwdriver;
• pliers;
• dremel.

Cooking wire

Before you connect the wire to the sneakers, you need to prepare it, that is, solder the inverter to it.

Important! Soldering neon has its own characteristics, they must be taken into account.

After the inverter is in place, the wire will need to be attached to the sneakers:

1. Make a hole in the right place with an awl.
2. Extend it with a screwdriver.
3. Insert the wire there - the procedure will go very easily.
4. Thread the line into the wide-eye needle.
5. Sew the wire with several stitches - it is not necessary to do this along the entire length, you can fix several fragments, the wire itself is quite rigid and will not sag.
6. Disassemble the inverter.
7. Solder the battery wires to its circuit board - the battery is lithium polymer.
8. In the inverter housing, cut a hole for the wire.
9. Close the inverter cover.
10. Fasten the inverter with Velcro.
11. Secure the wires and battery with an elastic band.

Important! If you are thinking how to make luminous sneakers, then this is the only way, because for others you need a thick sole.

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How to make yourself LED shoes?

A neon wire, of course, is good, but LED backlighting will look much more spectacular. They not only burn, but also flicker when walking. To make such a fashionable shoe, you will need:

• LED Strip Light;
• the wire;
• disk battery;
• microcontact.

Helpful hints:

• Microcontact needs a notch. It is located under the insole, in the heel. Many models of modern shoes already have a cavity in this place. The microcontact is closed by an insole.
• It’s suitable as a wire, it can be taken from old headphones.
• It is better to estimate the length of the tape in advance - this will allow you to understand how much disk batteries you need to take.

Collect sneakers

All the elements are at your fingertips, now you need to assemble your own creative model:

1. Remove the insole.
2. If there is a recess in the heel, you can use it, and if not, make it with a sharp knife.
3. Solder or connect the tin contacts of the wires by connecting the batteries to the switch using a metal plate, observing the polarity.
4. Fix the entire structure in the recess (it is better to use hot melt adhesive) so that the switch contacts close when pressed with the heel.

Important! On the insole near the heel, fix the insert, which is a thin plate of hard plastic, or insert a thin metal arch support into the insole along the entire width and length of the heel. This is necessary so that the heel does not fall into the recess.

Lead the wires to the holes of the laces, preferably under the lining, if any.

It is done like this:

• Stiff steel thin wire to puncture the inner lining of the sneakers, after which the wire under the lining is pushed to the recess in the heel.
• When the wire appears outward, attach the end of the contact wire to its end with a twist.
• After that, the wire is pulled back, it carries along the contact wire.

Important! Contacts are brought out in the eyelet or tongue area. With this design, the shoe will not rub your foot.

• Insert the insole back.
• Fasten the LED strip on the outside of the shoe.
• Solder the contact wires with the LED strip.
• Protect the soldering area with tape or varnish.

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Luminous shoelace

Installation of a neon wire or LED strip requires some knowledge in the field of electrical engineering, as well as the ability to work with a soldering iron. If you do not have these skills, you can try to get out of the situation in a simpler way. For example, make luminous shoelaces.

Silicone tubes

In this case, you have to work a little with a soldering iron.You will need not only two strips of fabric, but also tubes, liquid silicone and LEDs.

The tubes should crawl into the holes for the laces, so that their thickness should be appropriate:

1. To begin, measure and cut the tubes - they should be the same length as ordinary shoelaces.
2. Fill the tubes with liquid silicone using a syringe.
3. Attach small batteries to the lamps.
4. Insert the lamps into the tubes.

Important! If you decide to use silicone tubes, it will be quite difficult to use the laces - they will become decorations rather than objects having a very definite practical value.

Special paint

Laces can also be painted with a special luminous paint containing phosphorus. It can be bought at the stationery store, it is sold there, where they sell LED devices.

Important! Instructions are attached to the paint, which must be carefully read.

Features of work:

• Pigment is usually diluted with water. The thicker the solution, the richer the color.
• You can not add water at all. In this case, the laces are painted with a soft brush, for example, watercolor.
• After work, strips of fabric should be spread out on a table or window sill, with something well absorbing water, and dried in the sun.

Important! Keep in mind that objects painted with phosphoric paints must be periodically kept in the sun - then they will last longer.

Home remedies

You can make luminous shoelaces at home using luminol. You will need more:

• washing powder;
• hydrogen peroxide;
• potassium permanganate.

Important! The laces will glow due to luminol - a special composition invented in Germany at the beginning of the last century. Getting it is not so simple, but you should keep in mind that luminol is the technical name of the pharmacy luminal, a sleeping pill, which is sometimes sold.

How to make luminous sneakers this way:

1. Mix 1 tbsp of washing powder, 10 ml of hydrogen peroxide and 250 g of water.
2. Add 20 ml of luminol solution.
3. Grind potassium permanganate thoroughly in a mortar.
4. Add it to the solution.
5. Place the laces in the solution and hold for about half an hour.

Neon wire laces

From an electroluminescent wire, you can make not only a luminous frame for the sole or top, but also laces.

You will need:

• 2 m neon wire:
• 2 inverters;
• nippers.

Before you make shoelaces, you need to prepare a neon wire:

1. Spread it on the table.
2. Measure and find the middle.
3. Cut in half.
4. Attach the inverter to one piece.
5. Do the same with the other pair.
6. Connect the batteries to the inverters in the same way as in the manufacture of sneakers.
7. The laces are ready, and you can even adjust the brightness. It remains only to fix the inverters and batteries from the outside of the sneakers.

Important! There is another way - quite expensive, you can transfer the top of the old sneakers to a new transparent platform with LEDs and batteries already mounted in it.

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Stock footage

In this article, you learned several ways to make luminous sneakers. Choose from them the one that is more suitable specifically for your goals, and the new appearance of your shoe is guaranteed!