I'm doing a Machi cosplay for AWA in September (long way away, but this is my first cosplay in five/six years so I figure I'll need the time) and... this is the first time I've ever had to deal with dying or modifying shoes. And... well, Machi has some rather strange shoes, as much as I love him.

To be honest, I'm not sure which is better--should I get some shoes of the right colour (powder blue) and modify them (I wouldn't even know how to do that) or should I just get the closest shoe I can and then dye/paint? While I'm at it, I know paint has a tendency to crack, but I'm worried that dye will come out with uneven colour.

I'm going shoe-shopping this weekend (thrift stores first, working my way up) and I'd rather have a decent idea of what I'm doing before I buy anything.

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[Scrubs reference]Shoe shopping...[/Scrubs reference]

Anyway, I have no freaking clue how you plan to do this as painting shoes sounds tough. I wish you the best of luck in your endeavor. For paint, I could suggest trying paint for models/miniatures, but then again, i know absolutely nothing about painting shoes.

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DO IT THE LARRY BUTZ WAY AND COLOR THEM WITH SHARPIE!

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I actually helped a friend of mine do her Machi shoes, haha. I also used this method on my Simon boots (from Gurren Lagann). They were originally white and I dyed them blue.



What I used was leather dye. My boots were a synthetic material, but it still took the dye very well. If you can, find a pair of the shoes you want in preferably white. The stuff you'll need to dye them can all be bought from eBay. You'll need a deglazer, the dye itself (I know they sell a light blue), and a finish. Basically, you paint the deglazer first to remove any finish on the shoes, paint the dye on, use deglazer again to lighten the color if its not what you want, and paint on the finish. I'd recommend the little sponge brushes since they're really cheap (50 cents or so at a craft store).

This works much better than using acrylic paint on your shoes because it'll crack, whereas the dye wont.

Hope that helps you

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...absolutely awesome.

Thank you so much.

That was much more complete information than I had even hoped for. I am glad you told me about the acrylic paint, too.

Thank you again!

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Poor shoes... they're dying....
....
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Oh, you want to dye them! You should have said so.

Erm... Anyway... What I wanted to suggest is, if the shoes you find in the end are cloth shoes, there are special markers you could use. Probably not as good as Kazzu's solution, but you might consider it as a backup plan or something.

Good luck!