How to Make Minimalist Running/Climbing Shoes at Home

I took up running these past few years as an extra hobby to allow me some thinking time away from the computer and all my camera gear. I looked into purchasing some of these minimalist shoes both for running as well as for a water shoe for fishing but found that my local stores didn't carry any in stock, and buying shoes online can be risky for fitting purposes. Why not make some myself then?

I didn't believe that spray rubber would work very well at first and assumed that I would have to use the liquid paint-on variety that comes in a tin to achieve a good coating on the fabric, but after testing the spray rubber for myself I didn't even bother with any other method. It works excellent. The rubber is more durable than expected, and after about a quarter mile on very sharp gravel I noticed no wear at all.

One issue that I do have with the shoes is that some of the rubber solvent absorbed into the fabric outside the spray area, carrying trace amounts of rubber with it. This was due to my impatience in adding too much rubber in the first coat which wet the fabric too much and caused unsightly stains that you can see on top of the toes in the video, and also caused a little bit of extra stiffness in those areas. This should be an avoidable issue by simply going a little more slowly until there is a good rubber surface established over the absorbent fabric. There shouldn't be much to worry about after the first coat or two is added.

One other very minor improvement I would make in my next pair of shoes is to make the heel more narrow while spraying on the rubber. While I shaped the socks fairly accurately to the natural shape of my feet, I would have preferred the heel to be a little narrower so that it was a snugger fit. That's mostly a matter of preference and doesn't contribute one way or the other toward function.

Items used for this project:

• Divided Toe Socks
• Spray Rubber
• Plastic Grocery Bags
• Coat Rack (Or anything else that can hold the socks upright - two sticks would do fine)
• Fan (For both ventilation as well as increasing solvent drying time)