Handmade Shoes

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MikeonBikes
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Jun 24, 2015 4:33 am

by MikeonBikes

Hi Weenies, Having struggled to find road shoes that meet all of my demands for fit and looks, I have considered making my own. My foot is quite long (somewhere around a 47), however it is quite wide and I have a very high arch where I underpronate quite a bit (roll out) I have a general idea of how I will go about it, however would love advice from those who have made the own shoes from scratch (not resoled football boots as I have seen), or have similar cobbling, biomechanics, orthopaedic experience. I have done some work on HPV racing fairings where we made a very thin and flexible fibreglass skin, then reinforced it with carbon fibre. It was insanely light but also incredibly strong so that’s the kind of formula I’m going to follow.

My General though process:
-Create a negative mould of my foot wearing a sock (for a little wiggle room) and cover with a bit of rubber ‘protection’ over the top. This mould I will most likely make from Alginate and this is the most common material I have seen used for this purpose.
-Pour a moulding agent like silicone (suggestions please???) into the mould to produce the shape of my foot. This material needs to be incompressible and not affected by the epoxy resin, look further on. It would also be very desirable if I could use it over and over again and it was relatively cheap.
-Remove the foot moulds
-Wrap 2-3 layers of 125gsm fibreglass the upper in a similar to how Giro does the one-piece upper on the Empires (with flaps wrapping under the sides of the shoe to the sole). With Bont style fibreglass ‘tub’ wrapping up from underneath around the mould using a wet layup with epoxy resin and vacuum bagging process. This is why the foot mould needs to be as I suggested, solid and non-porous. This should provide me with a stiff sock made out of fibreglass which will act as my upper and connection to the sole.
-Cut a section out of the top of the fibreglass piece for laces (my preferred closure option) and then mould a tongue for the shoe from more fibreglass which will be glued in with resin afterwards.
-Reinforce the sole and heel cup with layers of carbon, probably 6-8 layers of about 100gsm carbon weave (less if this much is going to be overkill), run a strip of unidirectional tape at the fibreglass-carbon boundary to make it look pretty. Also running a small strip where I will put holes for the laces either side of the opening I cut on the top of the foot for reinforcement. Should this all be done as one moulding step???
-Glue the tongue in using epoxy used during the rest of the moulding.
-At this point, the shoe should be ready to go, baring cleats, laces and some sort of heel stud.
-To attach the cleat I was planning on using Sikaflex, a sort of silicone material out of a tube. This is because Adam Hansen has suggested gluing the cleat on will make it snap as is is too rigid so he effectively ties it on with Kevlar thread. I was hoping a bed of Sikaflex will provide enough movement to stop the cleat snapping but be strong enough to support my pedalling. A blob of Sikaflex for the heal and toe lugs.

I’m not looking to spend exorbitant amount of money on equipment, tooling and materials as this will most likely be an ongoing project. These will hopefully make good road shoes and the process I can then adapt for cross shoes as well by constructing some sort of rubber blocked sole (Sikaflex??).

I know on the Hanseeno (Adam Hansen) shoes, the soles are moulded off of his custom orthotic, however I was hoping to skip this step (as they’re quite expensive). As the mould should be taken off of my foot in it’s natural position there shouldn’t be much of a biomechanical problem.

If Adam Hansen (once he’s finished Le Tour) or I think I’ve seen Berk working on some custom shoes as well, or anyone else with experience with the sort of stuff I’m looking at doing has any advice. That would be very much appreciated.

by Weenie


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TheKaiser
Posts: 653
Joined: Thu Sep 05, 2013 3:29 pm

by TheKaiser

Bravo for taking this project on!

I have been wanting to do something similar for a while now, and have kicked around a wide range of ideas from making new custom uppers and bonding them to existing carbon soles stripped off some other shoes, to the full custom sock based system that you are considering. Your method seems like the way to go if you can pull it off.

I know your past experience is with epoxy based systems but have you considered using any kind of heat moldable thermoplastic carbon materials? I know that if you nail the fit on the first try then it should negate the need for heat molding, and in a sense, heat moldable materials are kind of a crutch best suited for mass produced footwear, but I had considered going that route to allow for a little adjustment down the road to make up for little errors along the way or unforeseen situations.

I had also considered integrating traditional cleat mounting hardware, but that setup of Hansen's sure is sweet. On my current heavily modified Shimano shoes, I used Instamorph heat moldable plastic beads to make a new platform for cleat mounting. I had originally intended to simply use them to make a custom molded adaptor to take up space between the cleat and shoe sole. As it turns out, that stuff is really sticky and it ended up bonding to the shoe sold and cleat hardware. Not sure where it would fall on the spectrum of hardness vs. Sikaflex or other options, but figured I would throw that out there as a versatile re-moldable material.

nlouthan
Posts: 188
Joined: Mon Jan 31, 2011 2:41 am
Location: SF Bay Area

by nlouthan

This is a great project.

I've never built shoes, but I have had a custom pair of D2s and currently ride Spesh Sworks with full custom insoles. I also have a high arch.

The one thing that comes to mind is creating enough arch and putting it in the right place. The D2s were great, but the insole was made from a crush box. The fitter who made my new insoles pressed them up into my arch to shape them. When I first put them on, the arch felt way too high and way too far back. While pedaling, they completely disappear.

Sorry, this is a long way of saying make sure you figure out how to build up the arch. You might need a lot more than you think.

hasbeen
Posts: 531
Joined: Tue Feb 07, 2012 7:17 pm

by hasbeen

Ive been dealing with feet issues, mainly my left one, and made a carbon insole for my left foot. I am also considering doing custom shoes or at least custom soles. I am in the same boat as you as I am not sure how to proceed. I will be watching this thread and maybe adding to it if possible.
Casati Vola SLi and Dolan Preffisio
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=108931" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;"
btompkins0112 wrote:
It has the H2 geo......one step racier than a hybrid bike

MikeonBikes
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Jun 24, 2015 4:33 am

by MikeonBikes

TheKaiser wrote:I used Instamorph heat moldable plastic beads to make a new platform for cleat mounting. I had originally intended to simply use them to make a custom molded adaptor to take up space between the cleat and shoe sole. As it turns out, that stuff is really sticky and it ended up bonding to the shoe sold and cleat hardware. Not sure where it would fall on the spectrum of hardness vs. Sikaflex or other options, but figured I would throw that out there as a versatile re-moldable material.


I like your thinking TheKaiser, I had the thought after I made the original post that there may not be enough surface area where required, I run quite a twisted cleat (Keos), which has to provide as much heal clearance as possible. Therefore I was slightly concerned with the amount of contact patch I would have on the sole of the shoes to glue the cleat at the correct angle. I also had a concern with the surface area of the cleat shoe contact and whether the Sikaflex would have enough stick to not pull off. I may have to make a thin platform (probably radiused the same as the cleat) and epoxy that to the sole, then make some carbon plates to glue into the cleat holes; this will hopefully give me enough surface area. I'm not talking lasting for years because I'll be replacing cleats before then (and probably made a new version of the shoes).

by Weenie


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Great Prices ✓    Broad Selection ✓    Worldwide Delivery ✓

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TheKaiser
Posts: 653
Joined: Thu Sep 05, 2013 3:29 pm

by TheKaiser

MikeonBikes wrote:Therefore I was slightly concerned with the amount of contact patch I would have on the sole of the shoes to glue the cleat at the correct angle. I also had a concern with the surface area of the cleat shoe contact and whether the Sikaflex would have enough stick to not pull off. I may have to make a thin platform (probably radiused the same as the cleat) and epoxy that to the sole, then make some carbon plates to glue into the cleat holes; this will hopefully give me enough surface area. I'm not talking lasting for years because I'll be replacing cleats before then (and probably made a new version of the shoes).


Hey Mike, did your shoe project go anywhere yet? If so, I'd love to see some pics and hear about how the process went.

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