Light Up Shoes
Wearable Electronics & Maker Culture
Personal Project | 2014
The Inspiration
Working with parents bringing their kids to the office with light-up shoes, I thought: why should kids have all the fun? I searched online for adult-sized versions, then remembered—I'm an engineer. I'll just make some!
What I Built
Following Adafruit's "Firewalker LED Sneakers" guide, I modified a pair of high-tops with programmable LEDs that triggered fiery animations with each step. My first venture into wearable technology and soft circuits.
Technical Components:
Adafruit Flora - Wearable Arduino-compatible microcontroller
Velostat Pressure Sensors - Custom-sewn step sensors in the heel
NeoPixel LED Strip - Programmable RGB LEDs attached to shoe sides
Conductive Thread - Hand-sewn circuit connections
How It Worked
Velostat pressure sensors in the heel detected each step, triggering the Flora microcontroller to animate the NeoPixel strips with flame-like patterns. The entire circuit was sewn into the shoes using conductive thread—no soldering required.
Impact
These shoes made their debut on stage at my TEDxRVA talk—a flashy entrance that reinforced the message about making technology accessible and fun. More importantly, this project sparked my interest in wearable computing and showed that maker culture isn't just for kids.
Year: 2014
Guide: Adafruit Firewalker LED Sneakers by Becky Stern
