- [Indah] Did you see that?
- [Aja] Yeah, the one with the emoji? Yeah.
- Hello, my name is Aja Zarrehparvar.
I am a footwear design specialist here at Nike.
And I am here with my very good friend, Indah Nur.
- Hello everybody.
My name is Indah.
I am a material designer at Nike Kids.
- So today we're gonna talk about tips and tricks
Indah and I use to explore and play
with our shoes, and bring new life to old pairs.
One way to do that is to dye your shoes.
So today we're gonna try to make some homemade
natural dye that will react
with the natural fibers in your shoe.
And you can use all kinds of natural ingredients.
Foods and flowers, even compost
or dinner scraps to minimize waste.
Coffee comes out with this really rich brown color.
Beets make a really deep red color.
Avocado pits make kind of a dusty rose color.
And I have run out of things in my brain.
OK, so we have some shoes.
First and foremost, it's really important
to know what your shoes are made of.
Natural dyes don't work well on synthetic materials.
But these have some natural materials
in the upper, so they will respond to the natural dyes.
We're gonna use some marigold powder
and some walnut hull or shell powder.
And that is going to give it
this kind of really, really light brown.
So it's gonna look a little worn.
Let's do this.
Remove the shoelaces first.
Well, that was easy.
First thing is, bring your water to 220 degrees,
and then I bring it down to 180,
as a way to ensure that we don't melt the glue
between the upper and the tooling and any other component.
We're actually gonna add some alum into the pot.
You can put a few in there,
and we'll stir it for a little bit.
Add some iron mordant into there,
so it'll help with the richness of the color.
Iron is in. I'm gonna keep stirring.
Do you wanna get some marigold in here?
- [Indah] Yeah.
- Two scoops.
Then, we're going to add a little bit
of this walnut hull powder, or walnut shell.
We'll stir for a little bit.
You make a little dye soup, which is really fun.
I think we're gonna go ahead and put these in.
Now, drop the shoes in.
Get those fitted.
And we're gonna let those cook.
As these start to receive the color,
they're gonna look really dark when they're wet.
Spray 'em with some cold water.
We're gonna start to see that's a little lighter.
- [Indah] Yeah.
- [Aja] So we're gonna let these cook a little longer.
I think our shoes might be done!
(crowd goes "ooh!")
All right Indah, let's see the shoes.
(shoes thump)
Ooh, check those out!
- [Indah] It looks vintage, which is kind of like
what everyone has been doing nowadays.
And the white lace, I think that's a really nice contrast
to give that more energy.
Still give that newness feel.
- Yeah, these are all my like skater dreams
in high school coming to life.
I can wear these to work
and feel like I'm part of the cool kids.
Indah, that was so fun.
We dyed some shoes, we're giving them a new life,
and we hope that you all can take a pair
that you've already had and give a new
kind of feel to them by dyeing your own shoes.