How To - Jordan 1 TD x Vapor Sole Swap

[blink3665]

Yeah, I started with those MCS. The leather is really soft, so be careful!

[blink3665]

So I finally finished both shoes. I used some Loctite super glue to finish the edges (Loctite Ultragel Control) It was super easy to get the small nozzle between the rubber and leather. Then I used a quick wipe with an acetone rag to remove any that got squeezed up. I have been walking around in the house with them. I also took some practice swings. So far, so good. I'm going out tomorrow morning so I will report back how the e6000 glue holds up!

[lhahn]

[blink3665]

I wanted to follow up on the durability of the shoes. I have now been out twice with a full walking round. I have been carrying a second pair of shoes in my push cart in case the soles blow out. I probably look ridiculous.

 

So far, so good. The soles havent shown any signs of a blow out. I dont know. If they fail will they fail suddenly and massively, or will they go slowly? At any rate, things have gone really well so far!

[CardsChamps11]

Im currently working on a pair of Nike MCS baseball cleats right now. Trying to get the donor upper off is a nightmare. This thing is really on there. The hair dryer method isnt working. Not sure it's getting hot enough. I think I need to get a heat gun. I also tried the boiling water method. That didnt work either.

[blink3665]

I tried the boiling water method on the first pair of MCS. The leather is so soft on those that they are really difficult. The boiling water started to break down the leather. I'd be careful with a heat gun on leather that soft. The AJ1 TDs have harder leather and it seems more resilient.

[Scramble4Par]

For those talking about re-gluing the soles, which glue product are you using? I remember years ago watching YouTube channels doing sole swaps and they always used Barge Infinity Cement or Barge Super Stick. In videos retrosnickers and Reshoevn8r made I remember seeing Super Stick, so thats what I'll probably lean to for my projects. I'll attach links to the two products and an application chart from Barge that show which materials that they bond with. I believe its important to use a heat gun on the glue after applied to the sole and upper to ensure a successful bond. Also recommend using a dremel if you have it to remove all of the old glue from the donor sole to ensure a better adhesion with the new glue applied. Using a dremel can also help with the fitting of the new upper in certain areas that may not be sitting right but be careful that you don't go deep and ruin the sole. Retrosnickers has really awesome documentation of reglues if you have any hesitation of the steps.

Side note; got fleeced for a pair of white cement Jordan 3 golf cleats that looked to be in decent condition on ebay, but was catfished as they were stained a higlighter green on parts of the upper. I assume the stains were from grass painted on teebox's. Bought them close to two years ago before prices jumped up high on all the 3's and they've been sitting in my garage. Only paid 120 so I didn't feel too bad. Going to try and find a 3 upper in the Black Cement colorway to put on the Jordan 3 Golf cleat Sole so if I ever get to it I will post photos. Hard to put a decent amount of money into an upper and side project at the moment for me so I will live vicariously through the posts on here for now.

Barge Infinity TF All-Purpose Cement Rubber Leather Shoe Glue 1 Qt (946 ml) Barge Super Stick Cement Urethane-Based Waterproof Glue 1qt

[Scramble4Par]

Just went back and read more carefully and saw that the dremel was already mentioned for those reasons, my bad.

[jasman29]

 

 

You have inspired me to try some Jordan 4’s. I have followed your instruction la so far with separating the donor top and the Do it bottom. I will say to expand on fencing the donor from a new pair of Nike golf shoes this is what I did and it came off like butter. I’m no expert by any stretch and this is my first attempt but I let the boiling water sit in the shoe for about 5-10 mins then I took them outside and used acetone with a cotton ball around the edges and working around slowly and the man the sole, it came apart much easier and clean. It left hardly any glue residue. Next is to get them glued

 

[Jwags]

The heat gun will heat things up to fast and can burn or melt the upper material and lower. Especially on the Jordan 11 patent. If that gets to hot it will melt. That's why the hair dryer method works. It just takes longer time to heat the area up to soften the glue enough to remove with the acetone. I try to heat up the whole sole area for a couple minutes then focus on a specific area either toe or heel to start. Similar to the boiling water method it heats up the glue over a slower time.

older shoes the boil water method works well as the glue is not as strong but brand new shoes tend to take the hairdryer method.

[jasman29]

Here is the finished product. The only thing is they are too narrow for my wide foot :-(

im happy with how they came out though

 

[sharkiesj]

We’re the uppers and donor sole the same size? Or did you go down a half size on the donor sole?

[jasman29]

They were the same size. I have a pair of TW14 soles I wanted to use that were 13 wide but they were too wide for the upper.

[blink3665]

Hot dayum! Those are fantastic looking! Great job!!!

[sharkiesj]

I know right. Sweet looking shoes bruddah nice job ??

[Hougz79]

This is some awesome stuff here! Nice work!

[SlapShotGolfer]

This is so cool!

[champagnechunk]

I'm revisiting this topic, because I'm in the middle of re-soleing a pair of Jordan ST Trainers with Vapor lunar pro bottoms. I'm struggling to get the donor uppers off the soles. Should I try dumping acetone in the shoe, let it sit for 10 minutes or so,  then dump boiling water in and letting it sit for the same amount of time? I haven't started getting the donor soles off the lunars yet, but I'm starting to worry I'll have the same problem. 

[blink3665]

9 hours ago, champagnechunk said:

I'm revisiting this topic, because I'm in the middle of re-soleing a pair of Jordan ST Trainers with Vapor lunar pro bottoms. I'm struggling to get the donor uppers off the soles. Should I try dumping acetone in the shoe, let it sit for 10 minutes or so,  then dump boiling water in and letting it sit for the same amount of time? I haven't started getting the donor soles off the lunars yet, but I'm starting to worry I'll have the same problem. 

 

It's been a bit since I've done this. I was always really careful with the donor upper. I actually stopped doing it because I was scared of damaging them. There's a ton of stuff on Instagram these days that could help you. I'm gonna get it kicked back into gear this spring when I won't freeze to death in my garage.

[champagnechunk]

8 hours ago, blink3665 said:

 

It's been a bit since I've done this. I was always really careful with the donor upper. I actually stopped doing it because I was scared of damaging them. There's a ton of stuff on Instagram these days that could help you. I'm gonna get it kicked back into gear this spring when I won't freeze to death in my garage.

I got both the donor upper and donor sole off. The acetone/boiling water method finally worked. Tonight I am going to take a dremel to both donor portions to get off the excess glue, and see if I can get everything lined up to glue. Wish me luck! 

[champagnechunk]

Finally finished! Overall I’m pleased with the result, but we will see when I decide to play a round in them, 🤣

[UncleDrew]

1 hour ago, champagnechunk said:

Finally finished! Overall I’m pleased with the result, but we will see when I decide to play a round in them, 🤣

looks great! love the spikes. I wish I had to balls to do it on my kobes

[fourunder68]

9 hours ago, champagnechunk said:

Finally finished!

Nice, i saw this same build @solehaunt on instagram. I tried a few times, managed to rip a couple of soles and damage few Jordans, but thanks to solehaunt they able to recover and fixed the damage and was still able to do the soleswap. i found the process very time consuming, and you can easily damage the sole and upper easy. so i just send to solehaunt or govrn who ever is going to get my shoes quickly.

[blink3665]

3 hours ago, fourunder68 said:

Nice, i saw this same build @solehaunt on instagram. I tried a few times, managed to rip a couple of soles and damage few Jordans, but thanks to solehaunt they able to recover and fixed the damage and was still able to do the soleswap. i found the process very time consuming, and you can easily damage the sole and upper easy. so i just send to solehaunt or govrn who ever is going to get my shoes quickly.

 

Looking back at my thread I realize there are things that I would do differently this time around. There are better ways to do this. You can tell I didnt strip down the uppers as much as I needed to. I did more than the pics, but I will probably didnt do quite enough. Plus, I should have just used a flapper wheel instead of a knife. I have some 10s that I bought to do this to. They have sat now for a long time because I was worried about ruining the nice leather upper. At this point, they are just taking up space in my garage. I'm going to give this another shot this spring/summer after I clean and rearrange my workspace.

 

I've considered just sending everything to SoleHaunt or Govrn to get them done professionally. I SHOULD do that. But I'm a tinkerer and hobbyist at heart.

[champagnechunk]

3 hours ago, fourunder68 said:

Nice, i saw this same build @solehaunt on instagram. I tried a few times, managed to rip a couple of soles and damage few Jordans, but thanks to solehaunt they able to recover and fixed the damage and was still able to do the soleswap. i found the process very time consuming, and you can easily damage the sole and upper easy. so i just send to solehaunt or govrn who ever is going to get my shoes quickly.

I saw that post on solehaunt, and knew I had the trainers just laying around so decided to jump in full go. I wish I would have been a little more gentle on the uppers when I was pulling them. The donor soles came off like butter but the Jordan uppers were kind of a bear to get off. Ended up sanding quite a bit of leftover sole off of them

[blink3665]

11 minutes ago, champagnechunk said:

I saw that post on solehaunt, and knew I had the trainers just laying around so decided to jump in full go. I wish I would have been a little more gentle on the uppers when I was pulling them. The donor soles came off like butter but the Jordan uppers were kind of a bear to get off. Ended up sanding quite a bit of leftover sole off of them

 

RIGHT?!?!?!?! WHY?!?!?!?! Donor soles come off super easy. Donor uppers are like pulling teeth. 😞 I have 2 or 3 soles that are ready to go. The slow part has been the uppers.

[UncleDrew]

On 3/15/2023 at 8:16 AM, blink3665 said:

 

RIGHT?!?!?!?! WHY?!?!?!?! Donor soles come off super easy. Donor uppers are like pulling teeth. 😞 I have 2 or 3 soles that are ready to go. The slow part has been the uppers.

do you think a .5 size difference in donor soles would still work or did you always go true to size? there's tour g in 9 but the shoe i want to swap is 9.5. cant seem to find a 9.5 for a better price

[blink3665]

On 4/1/2023 at 10:38 AM, UncleDrew said:

do you think a .5 size difference in donor soles would still work or did you always go true to size? there's tour g in 9 but the shoe i want to swap is 9.5. cant seem to find a 9.5 for a better price

 

Good question. I'd guess that if anything the sole might be able to be a half size up, but I don't know how you'd squish a larger upper into a smaller sole. But from what I understand there are shoes where the pros actually use different sizes for sole and upper. I just have no idea what models would require that.

[champagnechunk]

On 4/1/2023 at 12:38 PM, UncleDrew said:

do you think a .5 size difference in donor soles would still work or did you always go true to size? there's tour g in 9 but the shoe i want to swap is 9.5. cant seem to find a 9.5 for a better price

It all depends on the shoe. Some require TTS, some require a .5 size up. In my experience, I have reached out to solehaunt and govrn on instagram and they have been super helpful on what shoes need. Disclaimer though, they might tell you your idea is not attainable 

[UncleDrew]

On 4/3/2023 at 7:42 AM, champagnechunk said:

It all depends on the shoe. Some require TTS, some require a .5 size up. In my experience, I have reached out to solehaunt and govrn on instagram and they have been super helpful on what shoes need. Disclaimer though, they might tell you your idea is not attainable 

 

yea govrn said not to go .5 down on react vapor 2s. sending in my pair to him this week 🙂