Color Your Own Shoes - an Experiment...

Inspired by an idea we came across in a book, my 5yr old daughter Tivi and I decided to try our hand at creating shoes with our own personalized drawings. Armed with 18 different colored Sharpie markers, we each designed a pair. Tivi initially started thinking she would do a full color fill.... but after one back on one shoe... she opted instead for a unicorn and flowers on one foot, and geese on another.
I decided to make a pair for my son who is ALL ABOUT trains. My dear friend Melissa helped me out with a train stamp to start with, and then I colored it in while my son watched intently. We will try this again when we need the next size up and possibly try colored leather instead of a white leather... although the colors really POP on the white.

The next day Keita sewed the shoes together for us and the kids were delighted! My son can't wait to put on his "choo-choo" shoes... although he DID decide to subsequently add to them himself with the markers a few hours later. (ooops). I guess I shouldn't have made them in front of him... either that or lock up the Sharpies next time.

Let us know if this is a project you would be interested in... perhaps we could add it as a product option?

7 Comments

  1. Sounds like a lot of fun! I'm not sure how you would do it, but I would definitely be interested in it as a product option!
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  2. Yes, yes, yes! I would love this! Could you do it with a vegan option too?
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  3. Elf Larkin here: Humm... Vegan... We hadn't thought of that. We will have to pull out the Sharpies and give that a try. Thanks for the suggestion.
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  4. sounds great to me, loads of fun.. i like it :)
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  5. The choo choo shoes are awesome!
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  6. I agree that those look pretty cool - the kids would absolutely love them! And I have to say that the adult sandals this summer were awesome as well, though I don't suppose I would color on them! With adult boots coming (soon?), I think the million dollar question has to be, what are the chances of a mary jane for mama?
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  7. We'd love it out here. How would it be different than me just buying a pair of shoes in a good color to write on and then drawing on them when they come? Oh, maybe cuz it's not flat on the shoe...easier to draw first and then stitch them up?Well, I'd be all about it, as long as it didn't cost any more than a regular shoe (except perhaps for a little extra shipping for the leather piece back and forth). AND if you could do it on a closed-toe shoe (we're not fans of the open-toes around here).But, really, who wouldn't like a shoe version of the old popular "Make-A-Plate"?
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