Some wild and crazy ideas for used tire use!

Tire sandals? Who would have thought of it? The soles can be made from old tires. I mean, you look at tires and they have some sort of 70,000 mile warranty, or some other grandiose labeling. Meanwhile your shoes are done after the 100th mile. What gives? Don’t you wish you had a shoe that was as durable as your tire? Well, why not put two and two together and make a tire shoe! No kidding. You can try moccasins, and rubber soles, but nothing is quite like a tire sole.

How to make the tire sandal:

First, Place either your left or right foot on a big piece of paper. Then trace around it. Next, take the pencil and draw a point down from your ankles. On each side. Also make a point from the bone behind your big toe.

Then take your foot off the paper. Then draw a bigger outline around your foot tracing. You should add about 3/8 of an inch for the toes and the sides, but not for the back. Then take out a ruler and draw a line extending 3 inches from the heel. This will help you draw the back tab. Then connect the marks you made for the ankles. Extend the line three inches outside the tracing on each side. Then extend a line from the point you made at the bone behind your big toe and extend the line three inches outside on each side.

Then with the 3 inches as a guide draw tabs. There should be two tabs at each side and one at the back. The tabs should be 1 ¾ of an inch across. For each tab sketch out a hole that will be used to place the thread strapping in. Cut this sketch out, it can be sued for both samples, assuming that your feet are similar.

When you go out and get the tires, the best to use are truck tires. Make sure that the tire does not have some sort of steel cable running through it. This is seen in newer tires. To cut the tire you should use some wood chisels or a bandsaw.

A saw also works well for cutting the tire You should cut out a piece that is at least ½ inch longer than the trace pattern. Then trace the pattern on the inside of the tire. Make one sandal at a time and then try it on. The next step is to thin out the tabs. The tabs should not be as thick as the sandal itself.

Then to make the tabs flexible, take a blade and slice it into the point where the tab is attached. Slice until the plies inside are exposed.

Then use the chisel to cut the holes, where the strapping will be placed. For the straps use nylon harness straps. You can then use a match to secure the end of the thread. For the back tab you will need to connect it to the two side tabs made at the ankle.