Post-Apocalyptic Boots

weapons and food stuff are great to know how to do. But what's gonna happen when your trusted boots start to break down, which will happen faster than you think when you walk around in all that muck and always being on the move.

Obviously you construct your own so they fit well and you know exactly how to repair them. It's a no brainier. what does Max do when he stumble across a dead guy? He checks out his footwear

Sadly something happened to my camera so there are gaps in the visual step by step.

Materials needed:

1.5 mm thick vegteble tanned leather, about 5 sqf

3 mm thick vegteble tanned leather, about 4 sqf

3 mm thick sheet cork, about 1 sqf

1 pair of full vibram soles

Contact cement/glue

Thread for leather stitching

Tools that can be good:

At least two saddlers needles, they are blunt

Flat headed hammer.

Sharp knife, box cutters will work fine

Leather scissor (optional)

Shoe last, or a positive form of heal and toecap

Hole punches, I manly used diamond shaped fork punches, a marking weel and awl will do fine.

Awl

Sandpaper or beltsander, I used a dremel which wasn't very good.

Strap cutter

Step 1: Form Toe Cap and Heel

I used a 3mm vegetable tanned leather that I moistened, It's important is not to soak, and then formed over the desired the shape. I used a pre-existing shoe last I had, the this will also determine the shape of the front of the boot. I also did the heel this way.

Step 2: Sizing the Boot Strap

I knew the general form I wanted from my sketches but translating it to the real thing takes some trials.
I used the now dried and stiff toe and heel as reference and sized up roughly the height and circumference of my shin.

Cut the shaft out.

Step 3: Adding "eyelets"

This is where the gap started. I've attempted to illustrate the steps in other ways

Make stitch hole on both eyelet pieces and shaft pieces

for the lacing I used a folded piece of leather that I made half circular holes after stitching it to the shafts.

Step 4: Joining the Shaft Pieces

I started aligning the shaft pieces made holes and cross-stitched them together.

Then I stitched a strap over the cross-stitching that ended in a loop.

I used a strap gutter for the strap

Step 5: Joining Toe-cap and Tounge

Sizing out how long and wide the tongue should be. Made holes on both part and stitched them together.

When you've done this part the whole upper shoe can be stiched together

Step 6: Welt

Prepare the welt, I made a super simple one.

A strap that had two lines of holes for stitching, separated by a grove that would be where this welt would fold

Stitch one of the sides of the welt to the upper shoe.

Step 7: Attaching the Inner and Mid Sole

This is the most tricky part of the whole shoe, for me at-least.

Firstly make two inner soles for each foot with close resemblance to your foot but with a rounded toe section.

I used the 3mm vegetable tanned leather for this.

Add an extra 10mm offset and make holes for stitching on one set of the soles

Make a narrow and thick leather strap that can loop around the inside of the soles perimeter.

Make sure that all the parts have the right amount of holes.

Now stitch the welt, innersole and leather strip togeter

I dont recomend starting the strap in the heel, it might be hard to fiish it, as shown in the third image.

Step 8: Adding Midsole Material

You should now have a slim sole shape with in the innersole perimeter that should be filled with a soft material like sheet cork.

Glue this with contact glue.

Step 9: Attaching Outer Sole

Now glue the second pair of the inner soles over the cork and leather strip.

You can now glue the outer sole, I used a ready made vibram sole bot would probably construct this out of leather and rubber in a true crises.

Step 10: Final Step!

Cut and sand down the edges of the soles if you want an even finish, dye if you wish.

Apply some leather fat to mage them water resistant.

You should now have an amazing boot to go with your bad Yass Postapocalyptic persona