Faking It: DIY Louboutin Style Red Soles

Have you been lusting after a pair of red-soled shoes, but found yourself without the hundreds or thousands of dollars necessary to make that happen with authentic Christian Loboutins? Fakes from Chinese etailers abound online, but if you prefer your knockoffs a bit more crafty do-it-yourself red sole options are becoming easier to come by.

First up is budding 16-year-old Irish entrepreneur Tara Haughton, who offers red shoe sole stickers through her company Rosso Solini. {Stylelist} It will cost you $25 for three pairs of stickers shoe stickers to transform the bottom of your heels from what’s likely black or beige to a more vibrant shade. While we’d be embarrassed to kick up a red soled heel to show a sticker peeling off, Haughton does offer a rainbow of other colors and patterns that are pretty interesting. There are baby blue sole stickers for brides, yellow stickers if you want in on the neon trend in a subtle way, and prints including polka-dots and animal print. All of which could introduce an eye-catching aspect to what’s normally a forgotten part of the shoe – similar to Louboutins, minus the embarrassment of looking like you were trying to make your shoes something they’re not.

What if you need something a bit more permanent though? Save Your Sole, a London based company, offers half and full soles in a variety of colors including, of course, red.  Half soles will set you back £9.95 (roughly $16 at current exchange rates) while a full sole is £12.95 (about $21). If you’re not a cobbler on the side, you will have to enlist the services of a professional shoe repair shop to have your shoes resoled, but the results should last longer than stickers. If you want to get a bit more hands on, the company also sells touch up sole paint in a variety of colors for £18.95 ($31) that should work for a few pairs of shoes.

And finally, if you’re in New York, Madison Avenue Spy {via the Cut} reports that Andrade Shoe Repair on the Upper East Side has the materials in stock (they use the same red rubber that Save Your Sole sells) and will pimp your soles for a mere $22-32 in total.

We know what the Louboutin reaction to those making red-soled shoes has been (a good old fashioned black and white lawsuit), so we have to wonder how sustainable these ideas are. It’s unlikely Louboutin will be able to sue every shoe repair who offers red sole repair, and stickers aren’t exactly part of the manufacturing process. Even without lawsuits, just be aware that while the red sole may be the most prominent visual indication of a Christian Louboutin shoe, stickers or colored soles do not a designer shoe make, and designer shoes (or being mistaken for wearing them) doesn’t automatically equal style.