Help me paint my new shoe black.

February 4, 2010 6:57 PM

Help me paint my new shoe black.

http://gallery.me.com/timothyevans#100357/photo&bgcolor=black

So I designed this shoe on the NIKEiD site where you can custom build a shoe, but it didn't give me the option to go ALL black. I still liked the design so I went ahead and ordered it.

But is there any thing I can use to paint the white part black?

Paint? Marker? Rubber paint marker?

Thoughts?

Thanks in advance.

posted by stlboi to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (8 answers total)

Fabric paint? I haven't used it since school but I've seen it in fabric stores. I don't know if that would work well for the leather part on the outside, but you can likely do the top of the inside with the fabric paint if you're careful... hopefully whatever you use doesn't stain your socks.
posted by glip at 7:30 PM on February 4, 2010

A sharpie would do it. Time honored tool of the trade when it came to marking our Chuck Taylors in HS.
posted by headspace at 7:50 PM on February 4, 2010 [1 favorite]

Seconding a Sharpie. It will last nearly forever and won't rub off, (even if you get little scuffs, touch-ups are easy). You won't even have to worry about walking through puddles.
posted by amyms at 8:32 PM on February 4, 2010

This site has a forum all about customizing sneakers, so maybe it would be a good resource. On shiny surfaces especially, I find that Sharpie inks tend to bronze and with the rest of the shoe primarily being black, it might be hard to make it match and not look streaky. Maybe an undercoat of Sharpie followed by an opaque pigment marker would work.
posted by hip_plumber at 10:33 PM on February 4, 2010

This is what shoe dye is for. You can buy it at shoe repair shops.
posted by embrangled at 10:52 PM on February 4, 2010

Don't use regular paints, I thought this was a great idea and my nice black boots cracked in a week or so.

I wasn't very impressed with sharpies on smooth leather, but that suede will probably hold it well. Shoe dye seems best though.
posted by psycho-alchemy at 1:36 AM on February 5, 2010

Response by poster: Well it's going on the white part only, which is part of the sole. So it's like rubber.
posted by stlboi at 4:09 AM on February 5, 2010

A quick web search recommended spray paint, which isn't a bad idea, but you'd have to seal off the rest of the shoes, obviously. Someone also recommends, specifically, Krylon's Fusion spray paint, which is designed for plastic. This is not from personal experience, though.

Still, though, I'm not sure if anything is going to work without periodic touchups. Sharpie is probably an OK idea, if you're careful and do it very evenly. Maybe invest in one of those jumbo Sharpies for more coverage.
posted by darksong at 5:46 AM on February 5, 2010