Super Brite LED Sneakers

[i am jen] needed to spice up some shoes, and what better way to do that, than to spike them out in LEDs controlled by a micro controller. In order to make the LED strips, an inventive use of Velcro is applied. One half of the strip is secured to the shoes, while the other half gets a sheet of electrical tape on the sticky side. Small holes are then punched though the strip and the LEDs are then soldered.

Electronicswise the shoes are using a pair of 6 volt batteries, with no readily available holder, a “AA” battery holder is chopped to size and glued back together. Patterns are controlled by a Really Bare Bones Board Arduino, (which, even if your not an Arduino fan, is a cool little AVR breakout board for 28 pin chips) and cycles through different patterns using magnets and reed switches on the inside edges of the shoes.

Even if its not your style, check it out for a few good hacks and join us after the break for a short video.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwDTeOsYF88&w=450]

19 thoughts on “Super Brite LED Sneakers

  1. Turns to kid: “You call that lights in your sneakers?”
    “That’s not lights in your sneakers…This is lights in your sneakers!!!!”(Said in a crocodile Dundee accent)
    Kid: Crying

  2. Sorry Jen, lights aren’t really appropriate on shoes like this. Suede is rustic, LEDs are hight-tech.

    Platforms with clear soles are definitely the way to go here: http://bit.ly/enJkNV.

    @GameboyRMH I haven’t ravers around here wear stuff like this in over ten years. Maybe they still do in other parts of the world.

  3. @Booker T. Worthington: I dunno what ravers wear in any detail beyond “bright colors and glowing things,” it just looked like the kind of thing they’d be into.

    @vonskippy: I lol’d XD

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