Paint on shoes and sneakers - Angelus Direct

Design your own shoes. In this guide, you will learn which color to use and what is important to consider when painting shoes. The absolute number one brand when it comes to painting shoes is Angelus Direct. They have over 110 years of experience in shoe-related products and their colors and mediums are used by several artists and designers. More and more people discover their products and often use them to redesign sneakers and shoes.

What color can you paint shoes or sneakers with?

When painting leather shoes or sneakers, you can use the paint from Angelus Direct with the accompanying brushes. The color has been specifically developed for painting leather with and is excellent when painting shoes and sneakers. If your shoes have plastic material or faux leather, use a 50/50 mix of Angelus 2-Hard Plastic Medium and Akrylic Standard Leather Paint, apply the mixture with a brush and finish with a coat of Angelus Acrylic Finisher.

How to paint your shoes (leather):

Step 1: Clean the shoes properly, it makes the color stick better to the surface. Feel free to use Angelus Easy Cleaner which is made specifically for cleaning leather and shoes.
Step 2: Prepare the material to be painted with Angelus Leather Preparer & Deglazer This is an extra important step as it determines how well the paint adheres to the material.
Step 3: Apply Acrylic Standard Leather Paint. Avoid thick layers of paint, instead apply several thin layers.
Step 4: Apply Angelus Acrylic Finisher, here you can choose the type of finish you want. Let dry and then you are free to use your new shoes.

Paint soles of shoes

If you want to paint the soles of the shoes, we do not recommend painting on rubber soles, the paint does not adhere as well to rubber. To get nice lines and avoid the color ending up in the wrong place, you can tape the shoes with 3M Vinyl tape, this tape is perfect for taping the soles because it is flexible.

Midsoles: Prep with Angelus Leather Preparer & Deglazer, then apply Acrylic Standard Leather Paint. Finish Angelus Acrylic Finisher.

Soles (bottom of shoe):Mix a 50/50 ratio of Angelus Sole Bright and Angelus Leather Dye. Apply the mix to the transparent parts of the sole.

Can you paint with acrylic paint on shoes?

Acrylic paint is a plastic paint and can be used to paint textile shoes, i.e. fabric shoes. You can also use Sharpie and POSCA pencils to paint on fabric, non-alcohol based pencils work best. If you are going to paint shoes or sneakers made of leather, you must use a special leather paint.

For best results on fabric shoes, we recommend using a 50/50 mix of Angelus 2-Soft Fabric Medium and Acrylic Standard Leather Paint. Dry the paint with a hot air gun or hair dryer.

Some extra tips

You can use the same procedure on a variety of other leather items such as bags and jackets. Remember to carefully tape over areas to be protected when painting your shoes, we recommend 3M Scotch Masking tape. Check out these videos for more tips.