Luna Sandals DIY Kit

How long would it take to convert the 9x11 Vibram neoprene sole plate and two 72" leather laces into a pair of huaraches.

It was Sunday evening and I figured I had a couple of hours to spare, and I had already viewed the instructions on the Luna Sandals website and had watched the videos on how to tie them.

Right foot template.

Getting started I traced my right foot and then my left on two separate pieces of letter sized paper. Comparing the two, my right foot is slightly bigger than the left and I decide to use the right foot template for both feet.

My next challenge was getting the template positioned on the sole plate so that I could get two sandals out of the one piece of Vibram neoprene. The Luna sandal website states that if both feet fit on a piece of letter size paper then the 9x11 piece of neoprene should be sufficient. Apparently my 11.5 US size feet must be wider than most because I had a great deal of trouble fitting my template on the neoprene. As it turns out using a white crayon to mark around the template worked pretty well and as you can see the markings were fairly clear and easy to follow.

The next step was to cut out the soles. Using a new blade on a cutting board, it was fairly easy to make a clean cut on the inside of the white line, through the 6mm Vibram neoprene.

White crayon lines outline the soles on the neoprene.

The result of my first cut can be seen below. As can be seen it was rather a tight fit and I only just managed to get the two soles.

After 10 minutes or so, I had my two soles cut out. I don't have a lot of free time so I did not clean up the edges with sand paper but my goal was to get these ready so that I could try them out. Using a drill bit I created the toe hole and the holes either side of the heel for the laces that I elongated using the knife.

Finally, I was able to lace up my pair of custom made huaraches.

One of my sons said that they are a "crime against fashion" and sure enough they are not the prettiest of things, however, runners aren't generally renown for their fashion sense.

So this whole process probably took about 1 to 1.5 hours. If I had to do it again, I suspect it would only take about 30 to 40 minutes.