well i had bought a pair of modified markpoon/pitbull mags that im awaiting delivery. the intention was to modify my original markpoon pair i had but i was terrified of pulling it all apart. eventually last week i decided to bite the bullet and have a go myself realising if i made a total mess of things i could simply have a pitbull converted pair to fall back on.
so these are the pair in question - they hadnt even had the decals put on - so a quick ebay purchase gave me these:
so the fun began, ripping the shoe apart and removing the small clear rubber and the heel section to test fit how i wanted the leds to fit.
holes and leds fitted in the heel cup and shoe and test fitted:
i went for clear leds - as i wanted a stealth look rather than being able to see the leds unlit through the clear rubber. test illumination:
splattered some turquoise paint onto the heel cup:
now the horrible part - pulling the sole apart from the side, scraping away the grey rubber/foam and then scraping the clear so i have a window. i decided i wanted tuquoise leds over blue, and i also wanted to leave el out of the process. i wanted the led to diffuse the light as to illuminate the square patterns more and to have a more direct illumination sideways so i also decided to cut an arc shape into the sole to allow some reflection of light from the leds sides - sandpaper to diffuse the leds worked a treat here:
heel cup declas were added
and soles were re glued and splattered
and re tested the leds
a quick mock up of the parts to see its progress:
and the light i was wanting to be produced with the el tape section fitted:
so now its time to sort the power source and wiring in the sole:
now being in the uk always throws a spanner in the works and locating a judco switch seems very hard - i didnt want to order from the usa and have to pay more in postage so i needed a small switch that was also hideable - this proved quite a challenge to find a suitable option - i decided to locate the switch at the rear of the shoe to allow it to be powered up and hidden at the same time:
next was the wiring which was tidied and hidden, the shoe reglued and tested:
now the bad news regarding these shoes - the pure terribleness of the strap - mine was cracked and very worn away so i made my own, out came the sewing machine, 2 pieces of suitable material and a scalpel knife. my new strap allows me to slide the el tape into the strap with ease which simply was not possible on markpoons existing strap, mine are the 2 bottom ones and the badly worn markpoon item at the top. since these were the first strap makes and were quick and easy to see if they would look cleaner i have since made a version 2 of the strap (not pictured on this thread) the new ones have a finish which is smooth on both sides which helps the look on the velcro section where it has to be folded the opposite way ( you will see the underside on these pics) the new ones are also stiched perfectly as the first 2 were trial and error to see where i actually needed the stitching, and ill replace those when i build the second shoe this week:
as you can see my strap allows it to be cut with ease and have a nice tidy line, one side is velcro'd and stitch on, the other end has a very high bond adhesive tape to wrap onto itself to hold it onto the foam/rubber upper heel section:
i also added a new nike swoosh, much larger than the original, i have many nike shoes which all have a larger logo so i played around with the size and made one from the same material as the strap - im much happier with the new size:
and so it was time to take pictures of the completed shoe, one done and one to go, some hi res images here as the others are all camera phone based ones:
the new straps in its 50% stage, just need to stitch, velcro and cut the hole out to see if i can nail the finish better than i have at the moment, ill update my progress on my shoe strap when i get to the second shoe this week - im very confident i have nailed the idea in my head and the stitching will be top notch for the final one - i have lots of trial and error here, and plenty material to nail it
the rpf database has been a tremedous help, also the ability to see how other people have made these shoes made the building very simple to do - id like to take a quick few seconds to say thanks to the rpf and the people whom have done there threads in the past, i hope some of my build also helps others out to add to the existing shoe builds on here
so these are the pair in question - they hadnt even had the decals put on - so a quick ebay purchase gave me these:
so the fun began, ripping the shoe apart and removing the small clear rubber and the heel section to test fit how i wanted the leds to fit.
holes and leds fitted in the heel cup and shoe and test fitted:
i went for clear leds - as i wanted a stealth look rather than being able to see the leds unlit through the clear rubber. test illumination:
splattered some turquoise paint onto the heel cup:
now the horrible part - pulling the sole apart from the side, scraping away the grey rubber/foam and then scraping the clear so i have a window. i decided i wanted tuquoise leds over blue, and i also wanted to leave el out of the process. i wanted the led to diffuse the light as to illuminate the square patterns more and to have a more direct illumination sideways so i also decided to cut an arc shape into the sole to allow some reflection of light from the leds sides - sandpaper to diffuse the leds worked a treat here:
heel cup declas were added
and soles were re glued and splattered
and re tested the leds
a quick mock up of the parts to see its progress:
and the light i was wanting to be produced with the el tape section fitted:
so now its time to sort the power source and wiring in the sole:
now being in the uk always throws a spanner in the works and locating a judco switch seems very hard - i didnt want to order from the usa and have to pay more in postage so i needed a small switch that was also hideable - this proved quite a challenge to find a suitable option - i decided to locate the switch at the rear of the shoe to allow it to be powered up and hidden at the same time:
next was the wiring which was tidied and hidden, the shoe reglued and tested:
now the bad news regarding these shoes - the pure terribleness of the strap - mine was cracked and very worn away so i made my own, out came the sewing machine, 2 pieces of suitable material and a scalpel knife. my new strap allows me to slide the el tape into the strap with ease which simply was not possible on markpoons existing strap, mine are the 2 bottom ones and the badly worn markpoon item at the top. since these were the first strap makes and were quick and easy to see if they would look cleaner i have since made a version 2 of the strap (not pictured on this thread) the new ones have a finish which is smooth on both sides which helps the look on the velcro section where it has to be folded the opposite way ( you will see the underside on these pics) the new ones are also stiched perfectly as the first 2 were trial and error to see where i actually needed the stitching, and ill replace those when i build the second shoe this week:
as you can see my strap allows it to be cut with ease and have a nice tidy line, one side is velcro'd and stitch on, the other end has a very high bond adhesive tape to wrap onto itself to hold it onto the foam/rubber upper heel section:
i also added a new nike swoosh, much larger than the original, i have many nike shoes which all have a larger logo so i played around with the size and made one from the same material as the strap - im much happier with the new size:
and so it was time to take pictures of the completed shoe, one done and one to go, some hi res images here as the others are all camera phone based ones:
the new straps in its 50% stage, just need to stitch, velcro and cut the hole out to see if i can nail the finish better than i have at the moment, ill update my progress on my shoe strap when i get to the second shoe this week - im very confident i have nailed the idea in my head and the stitching will be top notch for the final one - i have lots of trial and error here, and plenty material to nail it
the rpf database has been a tremedous help, also the ability to see how other people have made these shoes made the building very simple to do - id like to take a quick few seconds to say thanks to the rpf and the people whom have done there threads in the past, i hope some of my build also helps others out to add to the existing shoe builds on here
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