Super Fancy Water/windproof Bike Shoe Duct Tape Covers

After not seeing any good water/windproof shoes made of duct tape in my local bike shops or online, I decided to make my own. Here is a brief write up on what I have done, hope this helps you to a warmer, dryer pair of feet this season! This may seem to be a complicated way to make duct taped shoe covers, but it works rather nicely for me.

You will need at least one 60 yard, standard width roll of duct tape, some scissors, a knife and some socks. Optional is some 3M reflective tape and maybe some fastener device for the back part of the shoe. Be aware that some of the designer tape such as zebra stripes and uh, tyedye come in shorter lengths so you may want to buy two rolls. I used every last inch of my roll to make these ankle high covers.

Step 1:

Start by pulling a sock over one of the shoes and getting it tight. Be sure all the straps and such are tight enough not to interfere.The sock you use will become part of the cover so make sure it is one you won't miss but is still in pretty good shape.

Step 2:

Start by wrapping the toe area. Lay some short lengths over the front of the shoe. Tape may not full bond with the sock but more importantly it should make a tight bond with other parts of tape. Try and make it smooth. Once you get a few of these done, start doing a few wraps from top to bottom and back over (if you are looking at the shoe from this perspective), stop when you get to the cleat part of the shoe and try and leave some tread visible if you want to be able to walk on slippery surfaces.

Now start running some strips all the way to the back, I stop at the back because I want to be able to take off my covers when I don't need to wear them. You cans stop at the tongue like I did in this picture as I cut the sock of around the hole part of the shoe where your foot goes in.

Step 3:

Here is what the back will look like after cutting the back of the sock. (I'm getting ahead but showing you a goal.

Step 4:

Here is how I make the back part of the cover. I put some vertical strips here and then fold them back so they don't stick to the sock or shoe. I call this tabbing, in stagehand world, we call this a courtesy tab ie. "Put a courtesy tab on there so the next person can get that tape off without needing a knife to do so."

Step 5:

Here is how I start to make the ankle part of the shoe, notice it is tabbed.

Step 6:

Here is the view from the other side and I have started to make the cuff. If there is no sock on the inner part because you used low top socks like I have, then you should put tape on the inside of this peice too.

Step 7:

Once you have the shape of the shell done you can start carefully cutting away parts of the sock. Notice that I have folded over the tape in the left part of picture. This cut goes all the way up to just the other side of the cleat. If you are doing this part, you should also be removing the heal part of the sock and any other parts of the sock that are in the way.

Step 8:

Now I'm making the bridge that keeps the cover held tight to the shoe. I put one side of tape facing out from the shoe and attach it to both insides of the shell. It should be tight enough to keep the shell close to the shop but loose enough to pull the cover off when you don't need to wear the cover.
Next I take a half wide strip and attach it to the outside of the shell on one side, go right down the middle of the strip and attach to the other side of the shell. Now get a knife or scissors and cut the wide strip at the edges of the shell so it can fold over the narrow strip. See next picture for more details.

Step 9:

See! That's how the bottom of the shell will look. Now you can do the back.

Step 10:

Step 11:

This is what the back flap will look like. There is bare tape to stick to other side of shoe. You could fancy this up with velcro, snaps or even a zipper but this is my low effort way of making this work.

Step 12:

Last thing to do is to style your covers out. I used 3M reflective tape and a sharpy to make these sweet graphics. Have fun with this and maybe try and immitate the style of some popular $300 bike shoes, remember, Mavic yellow or red are pretty popular right now. You could have some high end gear heads geaking out on your "High end " shoes maybe even get invited to some serious rides regarless of your your bike or how sweet your jersey is. 

Other things you might do is put  a neporene collar at the top to prevent water from dripping down into shoes or maybe some cool fur liners.

Enjoy!

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