Tutorial: McFly's Nike Bruins

This year I decided I'd throw together a Back To The Future Marty McFly costume. Come to find out Nike Bruins are tough to come by with all this new BTTF popularity thanks to the MAGS. I decided heck I'll just paint up a pair of similar Nikes. There is more to painting these shoes if you want to wear them more than once without paint cracking and falling off.

First thing is finding a similar shoe to the Bruins. I found a pair of Nike Court shoes at a Nike outlet store for 19.97! So if you have an outlet store close, I suggest looking there first.

Here is a list of materials you will need

Nike Court shoes
Angelus paint
Soft acrylic paint brushes
Acetone
Painters tape
Cotton balls
Q-Tips
Gloves



This paint is a must! Do not try to use anything else, trust me!



Prepping the shoe is the most important part to painting a shoe that will be able to handle daily wear.

Your first step is to mask of the areas of the shoe not getting painted.


Next is to apply the acetone to the parts of the shoe being painted. Wear gloves and apply with cotton balls or Q-Tips. What you are trying to do is remove the wax and paint put on by the manufacturer. If you just painted over this wax, the paint would simply crack and fall off because its not actually in the leather. You want to see the raw gray leather when you are applying the acetone. I find using a coin to scrape off the wax/paint saves a lot of time.



Once the wax/paint is removed you are ready for a base coat. More likely than not you will need a base coat of white to make your top coat look decent. Kinda like a primer.


Once the white base coat is dry, you are ready for the top coat of red. I used several layers of red making sure I waited for the previous coat to dry before adding more.


After the top coats of red have dried, you are now ready for your semi gloss finisher. Its a little milky but will dry clear. Paint of the finisher and let it set for about 24 hours before sporting your new kicks.




So there you have it! A cheap alternative to the Nike Bruin. I'm sure there are a variety of different methods to painting shoes but this one works for me. I hope this helps some folks! Good luck!

I've had a pair of these in my attic for the last few years,i just started wearing them to work.

I haven't used Angelus before, but if you want to make sure the red NEVER cracks I'd suggest using leather Hi-lite stain instead. The color is really bright and it actually soaks in and doesn't leave anything on the surface to crack. You'd only need to apply one good coat.

good idea there

nike are missing a trick , im sure theyd sell a heap if they re released the same ones from bttf , could offer a special bttf box or something for collectors

I completely agree!

steveo3002 said:

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good idea there

nike are missing a trick , im sure theyd sell a heap if they re released the same ones from bttf , could offer a special bttf box or something for collectors

Well you'd think so but after god knows how many releases Adidas still haven't released a proper pair of Starsky SL72's!

I think I'm more excited to wear these after Halloween lol

steveo3002 said:

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nike are missing a trick , im sure theyd sell a heap if they re released the same ones from bttf , could offer a special bttf box or something for collectors

Whaaaaaat?? Nike missing out on sales and being dumb about something!?!?! Nuh uh!!!!



(making fun of Nike, not you - you are 100% correct)

Risu said:

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I haven't used Angelus before, but if you want to make sure the red NEVER cracks I'd suggest using leather Hi-lite stain instead. The color is really bright and it actually soaks in and doesn't leave anything on the surface to crack. You'd only need to apply one good coat.

I can't see any leather hi lite stain in the correct bright red colour.

the only one you can get is scarlett red.

do you have a link for a red colour in this hi lite stain?

i found a different dye here, not sure if its correct or not

http://www.chaffinch.com/item.cs4?GS=fieleathrd

That Fiebings dries really dark, almost like not-quite-dry blood stains. You want to use Eco-Flo Persimmon Red Hi-Lite Stain. Also, Eco-Flo Cherry All-in-one would work, but I'm not sure I'd trust something that self top-coats on something I planned to wear. I like to thoroughly seal anything that will go near other clothing. The Hi-Lite is what I used on this shield I made years ago.

pretty good idea... now i want a pair lol

If you have an nike outlet store near you I'd check there. I still wear these almost everyday and have had no problems what's so ever. Ive gotten quite a few compliments.

i was looking for some plain nike tennis shoes like those but they weren't available.

luckilly, recently, the just release "Nike court majestic" in a few different styles.

i found this style which is perfect.

i think this is the closest you can get to the mcfly bruin look on the cheap. exact same red with swoosh. you can also get it in blue too.

look for this specific model

Nike Court Majestic
Colour : WHITE/GYM RED-DARK TEAM RED Model Code : 454255-108


Nike Court Majestic White Gym Red - RMKstore

nice find!

wish those majestics were available last year. Those are a lot closer than what i settled with. I bought these for the same price of the majestics, Nike All Court low. They are canvas and have a rubber toe.

McGarnagle said:

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wish those majestics were available last year. Those are a lot closer than what i settled with. I bought these for the same price of the majestics, Nike All Court low. They are canvas and have a rubber toe.

same here!
i got the all courts last year as well, but i dont like the canvas feel on them. They aren't too bad though.

So i got a pair of the court majestics. they are just the same as standard Tennis classic and apart from the front of the lacing, and the soles, i reckon they are a good alternative to the mcfly bruins.

i don't know why nike make it so hard for people. i would even be happy with plain white bruins, as then it would easy to just paint the swoosh and back area very easily.

in a shop in Sweden you can get:

Nike Tennis Classic AC VNTG (525227 103) - Caliroots.com

I know Nike, give us the white and red Bruin! The Bruin rerelease a few years back were Absolutely horrible.

Coolness.

So needed this for my finishing touches.

WOE! therpf has really changed, I need to get used to this new layout. Anyways... I came across these shoes a few days ago. Nike Cortez... it got me thinking... the stitching looks REALLY close to the Nike Bruins, and it's not too difficult (yet) to find graphics that match in the red leather. The ONLY thing that's drastically different is the soles. But maybe the tread can be sanded down and painted or something. Does anyone think they'd make good imitation McFly Bruins? Here's a picture. These are actually the same shoes Forrest Gump wears: http://theshoegame.com/wp-content/up...n-sneakers.jpg

Here's another pic of the original Forrest Gump shoes: