Make Handmade Rubber Sandals Out of Old Rubber Tire

Don’t you just hate it when you get a flat tire? Apart from the fact that it messes into your precious driving time, you even have to bother changing the tire on the side of the road and get it vulcanized sometime later.

YouTube channel Ban bekas & kerajinan has decided to make something new out of it. Using a very sharp blade, some fabric, and good old ingenuity, even you could make yourself a pair of handmade sandals.

Shaping the Rubber

First things first: you have to cut out the useable rubber from an old motorcycle tire. With a sharp blade, remove the sides of the tire and cut alongside the surface to flatten out the inside.

Once you have yourself a nice, flat rubber surface, use a stencil to trace out the outline of the sandal pattern onto the tire. You’ll want to check your own foot size before making the stencil, but in any case your cuts are a bit bigger than you need, you can use the excess rubber to make extra sandals for your friends as well. (There is more than enough rubber in a single tire, after all!)

Cutting The Sandal Features

With a nice, sandal-shaped piece of rubber to work on, Ban bekas & kerajinan starts cutting the details. They use a small blade to cut ridges into the edges of the top parts of the sandals and grooves into the bottom of the soles. While the ridges on the sides are more for an aesthetic look, the grooves increase the friction between the footwear and the ground, preventing the sandals from slipping.

They also slice a couple of slots on the side to make room for the straps. Finally, a small indent is hammered into the center of the sandal to give space for your big toes and index toes.

Fitting In The Strap

You can’t really wear a pair of sandals without adding a pair of straps, so you can also make them yourself using the excess rubber from the tire. Once you have yourself a pair, you can insert and attach them into the holes you made on the side and front part of the sandals.

Ban bekas & kerajinan employs a crude method of using a screwdriver to wedge the straps into the holes and then hammering them by using nails. With the straps in place, he then flattens the nail ends on the underside using a hammer. It may not be the safest way to install the straps, but if you don’t have a lot of materials around (and don’t mind little tetanus), this method will definitely work just fine.

Take A Walk In Your New Kicks

Clean out the sandals and you have yourself a new pair of handmade footwear. These babies can work well both inside and out of the house, thanks to the extra grip the grooves on the sandals provide. Also, you might want to try sewing the straps instead of hammering them in with nails. Nevertheless, this looks like an easy way to make you and your friends some matching sandals.

Ban bekas & kerajinan have more handmade sandal-making videos on their YouTube channel, but they also have a ton of other easy to do projects as well such as a rubber drum and bird cage. That said, be sure to check them out when you have the chance!

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