DIY High Tech Rainbow Kicks: The High-Top Sneakers That Light Up

Light-up sneakers have come a long way in the past few years. If you want to show the world you have the most high tech custom sneakers ever, you might want to make these DIY high-top sneakers. You’ll have to have a little ‘know-how’ when it comes to geeky crafts, but overall, I think it should be a pretty straightforward endeavor. In the end, you’ll have a rainbow light-up pair of sneakers that will make all your friends jealous.

If you want to make some of these high-top sneakers for yourself, you can do it. You’ll need a NeoPixel stip and FLORA, which are part of Adafruit’s wearable electronics platform. With a little time and patience, you can trigger your own animations when you walk.

In these pictures below. you’ll see Becky Stern and Phillip Burgess show how much fun these high-top sneakers can be. According to MAKE, “Pieces of velostat are sewn into the heel of each sneaker and detect the resistive difference of each footfall. This is wired into a FLORA micorcontroller that controls the LED array glued to the rim of each shoe, adding a glitzy bling to your walk.”

There are so many different sneakers in the world, yet everyone’s sneakers somehow look the same. Have you ever noticed that? Now is your chance to create some sneakers that are one-of-a-kind. Nobody else on the block will have these. Plus, you’ll be proud to have completed a techie project that only the best of the best have done. If you are ready to have the most badass sneakers ever, try this project. Just click over to Firewalker LED Sneakers to get the tutorial. If you make these, I hope you come back to leave us some pictures of your creation. Good luck!