Super Bright LED Sneakers

Running Issues: Running early in the morning or in the evening can be a very beneficial to your mental and physical health. Often I run after a stressful day or just as a way to began my day. Treadmills are boring and give the body little to no challenges. Due to the changing condition of the streets, wind and whether your body receives a better overall workout from street running. It's recommended to run on asphalt which is a softer surface then concert sidewalks. Running early in the morning and late at night can be dangerous, numerous obstacles like trucks, taxi cabs, bicyclist and pedestrians can be an issue if not seen clearly on dimly lighted streets.

Idea:To make the runner stand out from his or her dimly light surrounding, I will attach brightly lit LED to running shoes.

1) Running Shoes
     K-Mart but can be any kind
    $14.99

2) Heat Shrink Tubes / can substitute for Electrical Tape
     Radio Shack
     $3.29

3) Two 9 volt batteries
     Anywhere
     $5.99

4) 9 volt battery snaps or connectors
     Radio Shack
    $2.99

5) Solder (can sometimes fin in 99 cent store)
     Radio Shack
     $4.99

6) Soldering Gun
     99 cents store
     .99

7) Scissors
     99 cents store
     .99

8) Hot Glue Gun
     99 cents store
    .99

9) Glue Sticks
     99 cents store
    .99

10) Flex L.E.D Water Proof Strip Lights 1 foot length
       Lighting in NY
      $18.00 Per Foot
(I bought my strip L.E.D’s in New York City where I live but Amazon is a good alternative source, search for flex L.E.D water proof strip lights.)


11) Excel Knife
       (any brand will do) Art Store
       $2.00

12) Lighter (substitute for a heat gun )
       99 cents store
      .99

Total: 57.25

Cost Issues: To cut cost, you can modify existing running sneakers and use electrical tape instead of shrink tubes. Shrink tubes are used to protect the wire and wire connection from the outside elements - electrical tape will do the same. Feel free to modify the list above with anything you may have laying around the your home.

Gather your materials. Material list located above with pricing and product location.

I only want the front of the shoe to glow so I will visually measure how much strip I need. It comes out to be half of my 1 foot strip.

L.E.D Strip Lights: For outdoor use the weather proof works best. The strip is lined with a heavy plastic coating that protects the circuit from moisture, water and dirt. They run on both DC (plug-in power from a wall) and AC (battery power).

The L.E.D’s need 12 volts to run, in this case a 9 volt battery is used and able to power the lights. It’s important to note that power should not exceed 12 volts, if so, you run the risk in blowing out all the L.E.Ds. The strip has a continuous circuit of positive and negative running through them. Every two inches you can cut the strip using the cut area and reconnect them.

Grab your 1 foot strip L.E.D and cut it in half along the cut mark.

Grab your Excel knife and carefully cut away the plastic protection around the positive and negative connectors. The strip is very thin and the Excel knife is very sharp, it will cut off the strip if you do not take extreme care.

Test the strip to ensure it’s working properly. Get the 9 volt connection, 9 volt battery and connect together.

Now that we have the 9 volt connected, we can test the strip. Take the red wire and place it on the + (positive) and place the black wire on the - (negative) side of the strip. If the strip lights up then it’s working. (If not, make sure all the plastic was removed from the L.E.D strip  connection. Next ensure the red wire is on the + (positive) side of the strip and the black wire is on the - (negative) side of the strip. Then check if all the connections are securely touching the strip connections.)

Take the Velcro and measure a good size to be placed on the 9 volt battery.

Here’s the basic idea. The battery will be Velcroed on top of the shoe’s tongue and the 9 volt wire will run inside the shoe. Here it’s shown from the outside to illustrate the idea. The L.E.D’s will also be placed on the outside like the image below. I will place a hole where my finger is placed.

Mark where the hole will be placed.

With the Excel knife poke a small hole, the knife should just go thought the material. Now take the soldering gun and lightly tap the hole you just made with the knife, the soldering gun will clean the edges of the hole.

Run the 9 volt connection through the sneaker. Put a heat shrink tube on the wires.

Time to solder: Place the red + wire to the + on the L.E.Ds strip. Here I’m soldering the negative wire, the process is the same. Place the wire on the metal connection of the strip. Take the soldering gun when hot, and place the soldering gun on the wire only. After a few second of heating the wire take the solder wire and touch the hot wire, the solder should melt and drip onto the L.E.D connection. Refer to http://www.ehow.com/video_2130112_solder-wires-electronics.html for visual reference.

Place the shrink tube over the L.E.D strip. The tube shrinks with heat. I don’t have a heat gun so I’m using a lighter for heat. Place flame 1 to 2 inches away from the tube, and glide the flame back and forth until the tube shrinks to desire size.The tube serves to protect the soldered wires from outside dirt and water. Can also use electrical tape.

Place the other side of the Velcro strip on the tongue of the sneaker.

The L.E.D strip has a adhesive backing, but it will not hold over time. Use a hot glue gun to ensure a good grip with the sneaker. Wrap the L.E.D strip around and begin to glue. Glue in sections, I glued the strip in 3 sections, each time stopping to apply pressure and allow the glue to dry.

Place 9 volt battery on sneaker.

Lace-up your sneakers.