Kay. Here is my tutorial on how I’ve painted skates. If it seems like entirely too much work, then toss me some dollars and I’ll do it for you.

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STEP ONE: Get yo’ supplies!

Brushes- Fabricpaint brushes are great (white nylon bristles) DO NOT USE CHEAP BRUSHES. I mean, not super expensive ones, but not cheap crap ones otherwise you will have little brush hairs trapped in your paint job. It will decrease your design’s longevity and also make your skates look ugly and nappy.

I’m using “Royal Crafter’s Choice” You can pick up a pack of 3-4 for about 5-6 bucks at Hobby Lobby, JoAnns, or Michaels. *Keep an eye out for coupons!* These stores always have some kind of 50% off coupon on their websites or their emails/flyers.

Paint- Many people have had success with just plain acrylic paint. Again, don’t cheap out on this. Don’t get the .75 cents paint, get Folk Art or the expensive stuff in tubes or something. The higher quality the paint, the denser the pigment, which means few coats that you’ll have to put on. Fewer coats is always best.

Luminere, my SEKRIT WEPPIN: Now, to make sure my skates would really hold their paint for awhile I bought the Luminere paint by Jaquard. This stuff rocks, and is specifically made for weird surfaces, such as leather. This stuff comes in a million zillion different colors of awesome. Doesn’t have the exact color you want? More on that later.

Glaze- The Folk Art Extreme glitter is not only super glittery, but provides a great protective glaze without being stiff or cracking. If you don’t want glitter, I’d recommend this stuff that comes in a tub aptly named “Triple Thick Glaze”. Use a ratio of 3 parts glaze to 1 part water as this stuff is THICK.

Cleanser- Rubbing Alcohol or nail polish remover, & old t-shirt parts. Please try to use old shirt bits or fabric scraps to clean the outside of the skates. Paper towels tend to leave fluffies.

Tape- if you’re painting your skate a funky color, tape off the sole! If you want to paint the sole, do it last *or* paint it first, and cover in painter’s tape. I’ve had problems with the painters tape pulling off paint, so I recommend just being super careful and painting it last.

Stuffing-  Fabric bits, socks, old shirts, grocery bags,etc.

Unfavorite Laces- you don’t want to get paint on your good ones!

White Pencil- If you are putting designs on your skates and aren’t the best at freehand painting, there’s nothing wrong with sketching it out on your skate first. You’re going to want to use a soft pencil like Prismacolor color pencils- you can buy them individually at craftstores. Crayola pigment is too hard and scratches the skates.

Step 2-

Stuff your skates! You must stuff your skate so it looks like your foot is actually in it. If you don’t, the paint will tear when you put your skates on and they stretch. Acrylic (especially mixed with Jaquard Luminere paint) has decent stretch to it to survive general wear, but not if your skate completely changes shape from empty skate to skate-with-foot-in-it. I use walmart bags & socks. Fabric is dense and holds its shape well when you stuff it. If you just use newspaper, it will crinkle and not really work unless you cram it down in there. Stuff the shit out of your skate, and lace it!! (don’t over stuff it though or you’ll get funky bulges) If you’re a perfectionist (like me) put your skates on and observe how they look on your foot- even take a picture if you want- to be sure you stuff them properly. I put just a smidge of extra stuffing in there to make the skates a little bit tighter, so you get the paint all up in them micro-creases, and gives you some leeway if your foot moves & pulls them funky.

Step 3-

Clean your skates!

You need to wash & de-grease your skates before painting. I’d suggest you use rubbing alcohol, but be gentle, or you can wear the finish off entirely too much. You don’t want it to look rough like suede! Just sort of take the shine off a bit and get all the crud off. Personally, I use nail polish remover (but that’s because I’ve practiced) It’s quicker, but can really screw up the finish if you’re too slow or heavy handed. Basically, just use common sense.

Step 4-

Base coat!

Oh crap it’s painting time! Make sure you have your brushes out and squirt a big blob of paint on a plate or something. Do not squirt directly on skates.  If you are custom mixing a color, use a resealable container (old butter or cool whip tub, etc) so you have one consistent batch and don’t have to try to re-mix for other coats or touch ups later on down the road.

Mix a BUNCH of paint to be sure you have enough! You’ll want some left over for touch ups!

For better durability and adhesion, I usually mix 1 part Jaquard paint and 1 part Acrylic. The Acrylic thins their paint out a bit. I also use the Acrylic to get the Jaquard paint to the color that I want.

Now before you start painting, run the paint brush over your skates a couple times to figure out which way you’re most comfortable holding them and what direction you prefer painting. The key to a nice finish is smooth, consistent strokes, all in the same direction. I usually start with the front of the skates, and start my brush at the first white stripe and brush straight to the front. Keeping your brush strokes in one direction is helpful for layering colors.

Take one of your brushes, preferably an angle brush, and put your first coat on. Don’t glob the paint. The first coat should be mostly see-through. This is normal and fine, and means you didn’t glob the paint on. This is just a base coat.  Make sure your base coat is COMPLETELY dry before painting your next coat.

Next coat!Now, remember how you brushed in all one direction last time? Brush the opposite. (I don’t mean backwards) If you brushed from back to front, now brush top to bottom.

Brushing in a different direction helps the paint build up, helps keep brush strokes from being super noticeable, and helps keep you from wearing the base coat off.

Don’t forget that thing from way back in Chemistry class- like dissolves like.
If you brush too hard, or apply too much paint, then it will dissolve the base coat and you’ll have bald/thin spots on your skates.

Let this dry.

Step 6-

Designs!

If you want to paint a design, awesome! If it’s relatively detailed, you might want to put a rough outline on your skate as a cheat. I use white prismacolor (or any light color) color pencils. Why not Crayola? Nothing personal, but the lead in their pencils is harder, and you can end up scratching your skates instead of actually leaving an outline. Prismacolor pencils are softer and transfer with less pressure.

How I Outlined my Design:

If you are painting on plain black skates, you’ll need to fill in the outline you’ve drawn with a coat of white paint so you don’t have to slather on the paint for your design. I usually do 2 coats of white paint, and then proceed to paint the design on.

Filled in Design:

**If you have already painted your skates a different color, and now want to add a design, you might want to very carefully take a q-tip and remove some of the basecoat inside the lines of your design** Again, it depends on how “light vs dark” your skates are, how anal retentive you might be, and how thick your base coat is.**

In this tutorial, I simply put a couple of coats of sparkly on the skates, and then went about doing my designs. I filled them in with 2 coats of white acrylic paint. I lightly re-sketched the design outlines, filled them in with the colors I wanted, and then went over the outlines with black paint and a super thin brush. You can cheat and use a black sharpie, just be careful when you paint over it in the glaze as the ink can smear into the glaze.

Finished Design:

Other Design:

Step 7-

Wait.

Give your skates at least 24 hours to dry all the way. Unstuff, and try them on! 

I sewed 2 small fleece bags to keep my designs safe while my skates are in my gear bag.

If sewing isn’t your thing, you can go to Goodwill or mug a child and get 2 small kid’s sweaters. Cut off & hot glue/hand sew the sleeves & sew shut the neck hole (hand stitching this isn’t that hard guys I promise) and yay! You have a fleecy home for each skate.

Or, if you want to sling $15-$25 bucks my way, I’ll make you custom fleecy closeable skate bags! Woohoo!

If you custom mixed a base coat, be sure to store the leftover paint in an airtight container for touchups. You’d be surprised of the durability of the paint, though!