How To make LED Light Up Shoes

I put together a shufflebot costume for halloween this year (LMFAO robot head guy)... I wanted to add to the costume since I'd be out and about and doing alot of shuffling - what better way than some LED shoes that light up when I step/dance.

This was my take on this. There are a bunch of ways to do it I'm sure, but this cost me about $11 total, and worked (still works) really well. I'll add a parts list and some written instructions to this when I get a chance.

Note: I chose to put my battery on the tongue b/c that's the only place it would fit. If you have shoes you want to cut up or maybe they have a big tongue near the top flap... you might be able to hide the wires better. Since this was for halloween, i didn't need to hide the wires. It's all your preference. Good luck!

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Supplies/Parts

1. Shoes - pick whatever, but make sure that the sides of the soles are flat enough and wide enough to apply the LED material to. The LED strips are just under .5" wide.

2. Battery with connector - you can get these online or at Fry's or Radio Shack or any electronics place. You need 9-12V with 2-3A to get it to work. There are likely some battery solutions out there that would let you hide the battery better. Seek and ye shall find!

3. LED's - I like the RGB LEDs. You need to get the kind that are adhesive backed and flexible. I got mine from this site.
http://www.usledsupply.com/shop/led-rope-lights/rgb-full-color-strips/all-rgb...
If you want to use one color LED's that's fine too.. just poke around on the site.
I would measure my shoe to see how much LED material you need. I only went around the heel, but you could go around the entire shoe if you wanted.
They also make standard and high output. High output isn't any brighter, there are just more LEDs. One of my shoes was high, one was standard. You can't really tell that much difference.

4. Conductive Copper BB's. I used 1/16" diameter copper balls I found on a website called McMaster-Carr. You can really use anything that is conductive. Aluminum would work well too.

5. Pen cap or something you can use to contain your conductive material and support the wires - 4 wires if you used RGB LEDs or 2 wires if you choose to use the single color ones.

6. Electrical tape, glue, zip ties - you'll use this to secure the wires and tape everything together, as well as attach it all to the tongue of the shoe.

7. Spade connector or switch inline with the positive lead so you can cut the power when not using it.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• How-to
• howto
• hand made
• Dance
• Led
• Light
• up
• Lights
• shoes
• dancing
• glowing
• diy
• tilt
• switch
• momentum
• shuffle
• shuffling
• lmfao
• tutorial
• sole
• lights

[tartlime]

Should you buy the strip pre-soldered or not??

[IRsuperman]

@tartlime i'd go with pre-solder... unless you know how to... or just enjoy soldering...

[harleycoder]

I'm wondering if you could power them off a much smaller, flat 'coin style' battery instead of having this big, honking 9volt stuck in your laces. Wondering where to get the LEDs as well...

[IRsuperman]

@harleycoder I'm sure there is. I was just doing something quick for halloween, so I didn't dig much deeper.

Anything that puts out 9-12 Volts with 2-3 Amps would work. I'm sure there are some high output, small package solutions that could nest inside the tongue of the shoe... of course, anything you demand performance from will always have a higher price tag.

[farrellrocksalot]

Where did you get the led strips?

[mrkool1296]

So colorful............GAY

[Sonjay333]

Extremely helpful, clean and short. Nice work!

[g3m1n1z]

WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THIS? IT'S GENIUS!!!

[hectornnickclips]

Or just do buy some

[ricochet08]

THANK YOU SIR!

[ItsOnlyBest]

@Kodac00 go to autozone or autozone advanced

[tartlime]

@IRsuperman Thanks! One end or both ends?