NIKE MAG Knockoffs

cavx · Apr 15, 2012

McFly88 said:
Apparently somebody from this site, said they talked to a seller that is making the clear soles. I've got 3 sites in my favorites that all have the "K-Mags"...not sure which one will be selling the clear soles though. As i already have a silver pair i'm waiting on the revisions too

Yes someone did say that they contacted the manufacture. The way I see this, if we want changes made, we need many people telling the same manufacture the same thing or they don't do anything. They won't just change their line because on guy asked if it could be done. So I asked the guy that made the claim to PM me the details and so far nothing. If the shoes are altered and clear soles offered, then all the sites that sell these will have the same new model(s).

Looking at the images of the real shoes, and sure a whole new sole is one way, but what about making just an extension to the existing sole? If you notice the clear parts of the real shoe extend out. They are not flush like our knock offs of the MAG. Therefore, this part could be made from any flexible clear material - even silicon rubber. Attach the EL paper to the existing sole and attach the new part over the top. Of course as I have not done this yet, my idea might not be possible, but I found a really course fly screen (pet proof) that I think might just provide the 'waffle' effect for these parts.

Risu · Apr 15, 2012

I didn't really want to mess with the Western Union payment, and it would have cost just as much, so I ordered a pair from the new site Mitas just linked. Payment is sent, and now I wait. And tomorrow I'll be contacting my bank to get the BLC charge reversed.

Moviefreak · Apr 15, 2012

Jedifyfe said:
A little photoshoot...

Looks great Brad

nice set up!!
I still love those Pepsi perfect bottles.. But GW price tag is quite a bit :lol
I thought about the ones on eBay but that person is turning out to be a recaster and I cannot support them... Not to mention their bottle is not too accurate.

Jedifyfe · Apr 15, 2012

Thanks MF,

For everyone, here is a tutorial I put together for the Markpoon NIKE's.

Nike Toe Slimming Tutorial - YouTube

TheNickFox · Apr 16, 2012

Great tutorial, Brad! I have to ask, how many Mark Poon Mags do you have now?! Are we going to see you on some future Hollywood-themed episode of Hoarders with a room just filled to the ceiling with them? :lol

Seriously, thought, great work as always.

-Nick

Jedifyfe · Apr 16, 2012

TheNickFox said:
Great tutorial, Brad! I have to ask, how many Mark Poon Mags do you have now?!

LOL! I actually only have 2 of my own. But I am finishing the conversion on another pair for Funky Jedi. But I also have 3 other MAG soles from Markpoon for my other conversion that I was doing, that is now on hold...

Once I finish these last two pair, I will disply one pair and MAYBE walk around in the other pair...though my toes stick out the toe section worse than Marty Mcfly's did. If only these were made in size 10.5-11!!!

These are mine. The ones in the background are Funky's, getting ready to be finished.

cavx · Apr 16, 2012

That is great work Brad.

@ Nick, looking back, do you think this method of reforming the shoe might have worked with the your set instead of doing the complete tear down you have done? I ask because that toe box that Brad shows looks almost the same as the one you show in your tear down video.

Risu · Apr 16, 2012

I don't think the toe box is nearly as big a problem as the material the upper is made from.

cavx · Apr 16, 2012

True, but again, what should we really expect for the price paid?

Risu · Apr 16, 2012

Not the point. If you care enough to modify the toe, I think you probably care enough to go all out, or at least replace the materials. Although maybe that's just my point of view, having recently discovered my grandmother used to be a cobbler and having a very long talk with her. Patterning and attaching a new upper seems easy to me compared to the electronics work, although I can't say anything for sure until I take a pair apart and look at them. Compared to tailoring though, this looks like a walk in the park.

Jedifyfe · Apr 16, 2012

Risu said:
Compared to tailoring though, this looks like a walk in the park.

If you've spent as much time as I have searching for the correct fabric and taking these shoes apart, you would understand that these shoes are NOT as simple as you'd think.

I can't wait until you get yours and tear them down. You'll then understand more about these. Other than the small size, the Markpoon shoes are closer to the original prop shoes than you would think. The original shoes had a very thin and not very sturdy foam infrastructure that stopped before the toe section.

I hope you are right and I now expect that once you have your KMags in hand that it will only be a matter of hours for you to have the patterns made and sewn and installed.

Risu · Apr 16, 2012

That's the plan, although I may take them out for a few spins before I tear them down. You may be right about them being more complicated than I'd expect, but from what I've seen and some of my past projects, I don't think I'll have TOO hard a time with it. Either way, I'm looking forward to a new challenge.

Oh, and I should probably mention that having seen all the reference images, I'm leaning more toward making a pair of idealized shoes than anything exactly copied. For instance, I plan to attach the elastic straps only at the base of the shoe so that they have a lot of room to tighten down. I've never been a fan of slip-on shoes. I don't plan to glue the fabric down to the foam, either. But again, can't say anything for sure until I take a good look at them.

cavx · Apr 16, 2012

Risu said:
Not the point.

It is the totally the point. If money was no object, those of us that really want NIKE MAG shoes would be buying them at $5K a pair and not thinking twice about it. Point is, money is the limiting factor here for many of us.

I bought the Mark Poon shoes in 2010 because they were both affordable and the closest thing to the MAG shoe I'd ever seen. If they came in multi sizes, I would have bought more pairs and be wearing them out.

The only reason I went for these shoes now called K-MAGs is because they do come in multiple sizes. I am not that bothered that they are not an exact replica and I quite like the look of the shoes I have.

I am wanting to change the colour as the white is a bit plain.

Metallijosh · Apr 16, 2012

I want a size thirteen!

cavx · Apr 16, 2012

Metallijosh said:
I want a size thirteen!

According to the site I ordered mine from, they come in sizes from US8 or EUR41 to US13 or EUR47.

lukebrynycz · Apr 16, 2012

Jedifyfe said:
If you've spent as much time as I have searching for the correct fabric and taking these shoes apart, you would understand that these shoes are NOT as simple as you'd think.

I can't wait until you get yours and tear them down. You'll then understand more about these. Other than the small size, the Markpoon shoes are closer to the original prop shoes than you would think. The original shoes had a very thin and not very sturdy foam infrastructure that stopped before the toe section.

I hope you are right and I now expect that once you have your KMags in hand that it will only be a matter of hours for you to have the patterns made and sewn and installed.

I have to agree, only because i've been through the pain of this whole process. Doing the toe section is a *****, but just you wait until you tackle the yellow sole sections with a flathead screwdriver without tearing the rubber :thumbsup

btw Brad, that splatter paint on yours is magic

Risu · Apr 16, 2012

cavx said:
It is the totally the point. If money was no object, those of us that really want NIKE MAG shoes would be buying them at $5K a pair and not thinking twice about it. Point is, money is the limiting factor here for many of us.

I wasn't talking about money, I was talking about effort. You can find a decent (not accurate, but at least Markpoon level) fabric at Jo-Anne's and get 1/4 yard of it for well under $5 and completely remake the uppers for under $15 total including foam. The electronics may be pricey, but the fabrics aren't. This is one of those accuracy vs. time vs. money situations. You can have these cheap and accurate, it just takes time. From what I've heard about the electronics, I'll be able to make my shoes as accurate as I want them with lights and clear soles for under $300, so long as I don't make any mistakes. A third of that is the price of the K-Mags and a third is the price of the clear urethane. While that is debatably pricey for a pair of shoes, it's way less than the price of the real thing.

Luke, actually the nice thing about these is that there's no reason to save the sole pieces. I plan to use mine as a template, but make a new master from scratch, so it won't matter how many pieces they get torn into in the removal process, so long as I can lay them out flat and trace around them.

cavx · Apr 16, 2012

Risu said:
I wasn't talking about money, I was talking about effort.

Effort (including learning new techniques) is both time and money. You mention making clear soles. Have you done casting before? Years ago I worked with casting resins for a project that went from DIY to commercial. What should have been a few hundred and a few weeks turned into thousands and several months.

I am new here and I am fascinated by people that have the skills to turn product A to something else or better still, make something special from scratch. And I have even more respect for those that then share what they have learned along the way.

I hope you do succeed with your project.

Risu · Apr 16, 2012

I do plan to share my methods, and you're welcome to check out my build threads if you want to see some of the other stuff I've made. I'm very familiar with casting. Haven't done urethane, but I know who to ask for help there. Learning something entirely new can be very costly and time consuming, but I'm familiar with enough related skills that this shouldn't be one of them.

Also, I'll most likely have loads of urethane left over when I'm done with my shoes, I'll probably offer sole conversions for those that want them at cost. Not going to get into that until much later, though.

TheNickFox · Apr 16, 2012

cavx said:
@ Nick, looking back, do you think this method of reforming the shoe might have worked with the your set instead of doing the complete tear down you have done? I ask because that toe box that Brad shows looks almost the same as the one you show in your tear down video.

This mod might work for the K-Mags, but it might also tear the toe of the sole to shreds. The toe of my K-Mags were glued in better than any other part. It was only because I had already pulled away the rest of the uppers that I was able to pull the toe at an oblique enough angle as not to rip out chunks of foam with it.

With enough time, a utility knife, and possibly a heat gun, you could probably pull off a similar mod with the K-Mags.

Brad, in his video mentioned trimming away excess fabric under the toe, you'll need to do A LOT of that for the K-Mags. There is a huge amount of extra fabric under there.

The only other real difference is that instead of the uppers being glued to the "wall" of the soles, the uppers are sewn to a bottom piece of fabric that is glued down to the top of the sole along with the sides of uppers being glued to the walls. So you'll need to cut that fabric as there is no way to salvage it from the toe area under all that extra fabric and glue.

As to whether I would have rather done that mod is a different question. I would have saved a lot in terms of sanity and time, but for me, my goal has always been to have something that closely represents what I saw on screen, while still being wearable. If I had more experience with urethane foams, I probably would have sculpted my own soles and built a pair from scratch, but these K-Mags allowed me to leapfrog that process for a fraction of the cost of making my own soles, by giving up some things in terms of accuracy. To me, the overall look of the uppers, including the fabric, is more important for accuracy than the slight differences in the sole.

Once I get a refined set of foam uppers built up, I'll post a video showing the difference between my remaining stock K-Mag and my build so far so you can see JUST how different I've made it.

...then I buy fabric!

-Nick

NIKE MAG Knockoffs

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