Shoe printing was another thing I was a bit shy to tackle, due to all the variables I thought I might encounter. As it turns out, they weren't that hard, at all! I was just messing around with whatever artwork I could get my hands on, so there is nothing super fancy, here.
The blank Converse cost me around $30; I am thinking of retailing a printed set for $80.
I printed 3 different images, this round. This first one is my favorite, and was the most challenging to try. Well, I thought it would be, anyways. I started out with a Royal Blue pair of Converse, bought from the local dirt mall. I then proceeded to bleach the entire outside portion of the shoe (I did not intend to print the inside, if that makes any sense; not the INTERNAL portion of the shoe), by means of regular household bleach poured into an empty 409 spray bottle. At first, I diluted the bleach with equal parts water. I sprayed each shoe, placed them on my balcony to sit in the sun, and waited. After 15 minutes, there was only mild discoloration on the shoes. Being the impatient person that I am, I decided to shoot them with 100% bleach... Interestingly enough, it didn't seem to hurt the shoes any, and after about 20 more minutes in the sun, they were ready for one final spritz session, before one final dry session in the sun, before being ready to print! I had originally intended to leave the bleached out look behind the angel image when I printed it, hoping to achieve some "vintage" look. However, the more I thought about it, the more I didn't like it. Instead, I filled the entire background of the image with dark blue, and hit the print button. I wasn't expecting it to work as well as it did! With Fernando's shoe platen, I was able to print 2 shoes at a time. In order to get the best results, I double printed everything. By the second pass, the blue in the printed image almost matched the blue in the shoe dye! If you look closely towards the toe of each shoe, you can see how the REAL shoe color compares to the printed background (the real shoe color is the part which almost looks likes it has a shine to it):
Like I said, I was pleased with the results!
1 pair of blank Converse: $30
Ink Cost (per shoe): .44 (times 2, since I double passed it) = .88 @ 2 shoes = $1.76
There are a few things I would do differently the next time around. For instance, I bleached part of the BACK of the shoes, thinking I was going to leave a large bleached area around the angel design. The printed area does not wrap around the back of the shoe, so there is a vertical bleach stripe on the back of each shoe. haha - I think it looks "custom"...
Justin, how much was platen? What was method of curing... Lastly, how long did it take you to load shoe in to print?
Saw samples of shoes yesterday from a company that I will buy a Brother printer from, looked pretty sweet having printed shoes...
Great to sell to all those dorky kids with tight girl pants who think they are badass listening to New found glory Haha
Justin, how much was platen? What was method of curing... Lastly, how long did it take you to load shoe in to print?
Saw samples of shoes yesterday from a company that I will buy a Brother printer from, looked pretty sweet having printed shoes...
Great to sell to all those dorky kids with tight girl pants who think they are badass listening to New found glory Haha
Printing Converse with the Brother 
