Awaken the Crafting Force with These ADORBS DIY BB-8 Sneakers

June 10, 2016June 6, 2016 by Sydney Scott

If you didn’t squee as soon as you laid eyes on these BB-8-inspired sneakers, then we’ve got bad news: there’s a solid chance that you’re Kylo Ren. (In which case, HOW DARE YOU, SIR.) If you did squee, however, you’re definitely a Rey/Poe/Finn at heart, and you’re going to LURVE this DIY. Check out the below tutorial to make a pair of these j’adorbs sneaks for yourself!

Here’s what you’ll need to create your own stellar droid sneakers:

Plain white sneakers (I used these)
Acrylic paints (we stuck with orange and grey, but you can choose any colors you want!)
Paint brushes
Pencil
Painter’s tape
Plastic bags or tissue paper
Scissors
Mod Podge or other paint sealer
Printed-out pattern/stencil, if needed

To keep things all nice and tidy, you’ll first want to remove the laces and protect any parts of the shoe that you don’t want to get paint on (painter’s tape along the soles and some plastic bags inside of the shoe should work well). You can then cut out the circular part of the printed image to use as a stencil, and lightly trace the design onto the shoe with a pencil.

Next, you can break out your acrylic paints. Painting the design without smudging or dripping or blobbing might seem as nerve-wracking as fighting your maybe-brother to the death in a light-saber duel, but don’t stress too much! The whole process should go pretty smoothly if you paint carefully and slowly; using a smaller brush and tiny amounts of paint will also make things easier!

After your orange circles have dried, just repeat the same steps with the lines and dots in gray—I free-handed mine, but there are lots of reference images available online!

Continue painting designs along the sides and the back of the shoe (my side panels were inspired by the patterns on BB-8’s head, and I left the back panels a simple, solid orange). The last step is to seal the paint with a few coats of Mod Podge or a similar sealant (this will help protect your painted designs from the elements).

The only thing left to do is wear these sneakers EVERYWHERE, for two reasons:

One, so that you’ll never lose track of them on a desert junkyard planet,

And two, because there’s a high likelihood of them attracting the attention of a dashing young Rebel pilot, finally giving you an excuse to use the terrible and/or genius pickup line, “These are the droids you’re looking for.” Poe Dameron won’t even know what hit him.