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LED Shoes

Brighten up your shoes with LEDs! Stay safe when walking outside in the dark. Show off your light-up shoes while trick-or-treating.


Upgrading My Shoes

Adding some illumination to my shoes seemed like a great upgrade. Sewable LED ribbons come in various colors and number of LEDs per interval. I chose ribbons with 25 blue LEDs from SparkFun Electronics. These are great for sewing, but I thought there might be a faster approach to attaching my LEDs to the soles of my shoes.

Sewable LED Ribbon Lit with 3 AA Batteries

NOTE: One thing you need to consider with any wearable tech project is the power source. I chose to use AA batteries to power 4.5V of electricity through each shoe’s LED ribbon. This was probably a poor choice, but worked well. Smaller batteries or even a lithium ion battery would be a better choice for this project, but make sure you don’t over-power your LEDs.

Some Supplies

AA Batteries, Battery Holder, Snap Connector, Shoes (don’t forget those)

Some Tools: Electrical Tape, Wire Strippers, and Adhesive Velcro Strips

You’ll also need a stapler and staples to attach the LED ribbon to your shoes.

Attaching the LEDs and Batteries to the Shoes

  • Measure the length of your LED ribbon needed by wrapping it around the top of your shoe’s sole.
  • Leave a little extra ribbon and use wire cutters/stripper to trim off the remaining ribbon.
NOTE: Cut the ribbon between the LEDs and be sure to not cut through an LED in the ribbon.

  • Carefully cut away some the fabric on one end of the LED ribbon.
  • Using wire strippers, strip away some of the insulation around each of the two wires protruding from the end of the LED ribbon.
  • Starting in the back of the shoe and just above the sole, carefully staple the ribbon to the sole of each shoe.
NOTE: It’s best to align the LEDs to the top of the sole and staple the sewable fabric on the bottom into the shoe’s sole.

  • After securing the LED ribbon to each shoe’s sole all the around, attach the protruding wires on the end of the ribbon to the battery holder snap connector.
NOTE: There are different ways to attach these two wires, but it’s always important to attach the negative wires (usually black) first and the positive wires (usually red) last. Be sure your positive and negative wires do not connect! This will overheat your LEDs and batteries.
  • I chose to connect the wiring using a twist method. No matter how you connect the wires, be sure to insulate the connections. I used electrical tape to insulate each wire connection.
  • If you haven’t done so already, connect the snap connector to the 3 AA battery holder.
Twist each pair of wires together and insulate the connections
  • I used adhesive Velcro to attach the 3 AA battery holder to the side of each shoe - on the inner side of the shoe. This hides the batteries from view.
Adhesive Velcro on Back of Battery Holder

Optional: You can add a simple slide switch between your batteries and LEDs to easily turn your shoes on and off. To turn off my shoes, I simply disconnected the snap connector from the battery holders and attached the end of the snap connector to the shoe using a tiny strip of adhesive Velcro.

Light Up the Town!

When you’re all finished, you’ll have some pretty bright LEDs that will certainly draw attention to your shoes and keep you safe when walking outside at night.



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