Air Jordan IV “Black/Cement” - May 4th 2019

[tonytobacco]

Well then ...
Came home. Finally motivated myself to bust out the iron. This could not have been easier. I should have done this three months ago. Completely pleased with the results and it was drama-free. You can obviously see the difference. Oh, and zero wrinkles.
Now just to add the lines with my LIGHT gray pencil and it’s a wrap. Damn this is sick
tonytobacco JRepp23 @marztharealist @spoonmanofthehour I told you I’d get to it eventually LOL

 

[tonytobacco]

seems like wrinkles happen if you go too hard on it. Your amount is perfect. You should have more confidence in DIY stuff bro

 

[rainking]

Thanks dudes!

That looks good. I'm too nervous to do it lol
Maybe if I beat my pair up a little first it I won't be as scared to run it.

seems like wrinkles happen if you go too hard on it. Your amount is perfect. You should have more confidence in DIY stuff bro

Totally honest: I bought the shoe trees like two months ago. Every time I thought to do it, I either couldn't be bothered, or I indeed starting thinking something would go horribly wrong. But I am not joking @solecitor when I say anyone can do this, assuming you've ever used an iron before. I stuffed three ankle socks into the toe boxes, then put two socks over my plastic shoe trees and jammed them into the toes as far as I could. Then I sprayed some distilled water out of a plastic spray bottle onto the toes of the shoes so they were for sure wet (not soaked, but clearly wet). Then I soaked a white t-shirt with my jug of distilled water, laid it over the toes, and took my iron--set on cotton--to work. I have a decent iron that when you hit the steam button, it produces a lot of steam. So I hit the toes through the shirt with the steam, then put the iron on the shirt and firmly but without distorting the shoes rolled it over the toes a few times from bottom to top. Then I took the iron and shirt away and let the shoe cool a bit (even hit it with compressed air from a can) and then repeated the process like three or four times to each shoe. I checked how they looked after each time I went over them (and by each time I mean I probably went around them two or three times a pop). As long as you make sure you fully stuff the toes and use shoe trees, there's no way you can **** this up. I thought the toes would bend and distort easily but they are so stiff, it was the complete opposite. I can't imagine how hard I'd have had to push to produce obvious let alone big wrinkles in them. I will never hesitate to do this again if need be. I had never done anything like this and it was a cinch. Nothing to fear whatsoever as long as you stuff the shoes. A good iron also helps, I imagine.

 

[tonytobacco]

Turn that air can upside down and spray it, theyll cool off instantly lol

youre welcome for the new xmen power

 

[dhtowng]

Thanks dudes!




Totally honest: I bought the shoe trees like two months ago. Every time I thought to do it, I either couldn't be bothered, or I indeed starting thinking something would go horribly wrong. But I am not joking @solecitor when I say anyone can do this, assuming you've ever used an iron before. I stuffed three ankle socks into the toe boxes, then put two socks over my plastic shoe trees and jammed them into the toes as far as I could. Then I sprayed some distilled water out of a plastic spray bottle onto the toes of the shoes so they were for sure wet (not soaked, but clearly wet). Then I soaked a white t-shirt with my jug of distilled water, laid it over the toes, and took my iron set on cotton to work. I have a decent iron that when you hit the steam button, it produces a lot of steam. So I hit the toes through the shirt with the steam, then put the iron on the shirt and firmly but without distorting the shoes rolled it over the toes a few times from bottom to top. Then I took the iron and shirt away and let the shoe cool a bit (even hit it with compressed air from a can) and then repeated the process like three or four times to each shoe. I checked how they looked after each time I went over them (and by each time I mean I probably went around them two or three times a pop). As long as you make sure you fully stuff the toes and use shoe trees, there's no way you can **** this up. I thought the toes would bend and distort easily but they are so stiff, it was the complete opposite. I can't imagine how hard I'd have had to push to produce obvious let alone big wrinkles in them. I will never hesitate to do this again if need be. I had never done anything like this and it was a cinch. Nothing to fear whatsoever as long as you stuff the shoes. A good iron also helps, I imagine.

Repped for taking patient, measured and calculated steps to receive a desired result. Good stuff.

 

[rainking]

Repped for taking patient, measured and calculated steps to receive a desired result. Good stuff.

Thanks brotha. But not to give myself much credit, I just want to be clear: this "project" is SUPER easy for anyone who thinks they want to do it but is too scared. Like I mentioned, I ultimately knew I was going to get around to giving it a shot but I kind of put it off thinking it had a lot of disastrous potential. I wasn't real enthused about potentially ruining a new pair of shoes that cost me $220 out the door. I would have been in a rage.

BUT once I got going, it was literally nothing. Like, it could not have been easier. My entire time invested might have been 45 minutes, and that includes stuffing the shoes with socks, shoe trees, getting my water ready and wetting up a t shirt ... the prep killed at least 25 minutes making sure I had everything right (and by right I mean, as far as my common sense could tell). The actual ironing was nothing. To be honest I now kind of want to hit them again a little more aggressively and get even more of the effect. That's how confident I am in it once I saw how it works. As I also said, I've never done anything like this to a pair of shoes in my life, so it's not like I'm saying it was easy because I'm experienced at such things.

Anyway, if anyone wants to "fix" the toes on these bad boys, you have nothing to fear if you do what I did. Now I'm interested to see how it holds up. I know what to do if it needs more attention.

 

[tonytobacco]

BUT once I got going, it was literally nothing. Like, it could not have been easier. My entire time invested might have been 45 minutes, and that includes stuffing the shoes with socks, shoe trees, getting my water ready and wetting up a t shirt ... the prep killed at least 25 minutes making sure I had everything right (and by right I mean, as far as my common sense could tell). The actual ironing was nothing. To be honest I now kind of want to hit them again a little more aggressively and get even more of the effect. That's how confident I am in it once I saw how it works. As I also said, I've never done anything like this to a pair of shoes in my life, so it's not like I'm saying it was easy because I'm experienced at such things.

Anyway, if anyone wants to "fix" the toes on these bad boys, you have nothing to fear if you do what I did. Now I'm interested to see how it holds up. I know what to do if it needs more attention.

This must be where people go wrong in the process lol

I wouldnt push my luck, you nailed it

 

[rainking]

This must be where people go wrong in the process lol

I wouldnt push my luck, you nailed it

Dude if I hadn't actually done it and seen/felt how it goes, I would say the same as you just did. But I promise you I can hit these again and it will not **** them up.

I still had the stuffing/shoe trees in them when I took those pics. They still look mostly the same but I can get some more smooth slant going, I guarantee. Tomorrow I will either do it or not. If I don't, I'll just move on. But I'm a machine of momentum. It took me three months to do it now, and now I'm down with it. If it doesn't happen after work tomorrow, it won't ever happen LOL. I need to get onto the gray lines and finally start rocking these mofos. Will report back.

 

[tonytobacco]

I wouldnt go any lower with it. Thats what i imagine a brand new OG wouldve looked like more or less before collapsing to a flatter look over time. Id be afraid of the excess material folding/creasing if you go further for no real advantage over what you already did

 

[rainking]

I wouldnt go any lower with it. Thats what i imagine a brand new OG wouldve looked like more or less before collapsing to a flatter look over time. Id be afraid of the excess material folding/creasing if you go further for no real advantage over what you already did

You're mostly right. Two things at play here in my mind when I said I want to hit it again, that aren't apparent in the pics I posted:

The left shoe on this pair, thanks to JB's crap QC, has a slightly thicker and higher toe rand than the right shoe. It's still slanted now that I took the trees/socks out of the shoes, but I realized after the fact that I could have been a little more aggressive with it. I did what you are suggesting in the moment when I was ironing and said, that's good for now, don't push your luck. Now I see there is room to work with.

The other thing is, all you can really do with these in general is, fix the literal TOE rand slant. Due to the way the shoes are made, there's no way to make the actual overall toe box slant down like the OGs and '99s did. So I'd like to at least get the literal toes more sloped.

But it's only by a millimeter or so of angle, so you're probably right. I should just let it go. Only losers like us even see or notice this ****. We'll see how I feel tomorrow when I get home from work and check them out again. Probably just time to move on

That said, it feels so good to get rid of that ludicrous square/boot/cliff toe these have out of the box. Even if no one else can see it.

 

[JeZ13]

Thanks brotha. But not to give myself much credit, I just want to be clear: this "project" is SUPER easy for anyone who thinks they want to do it but is too scared. Like I mentioned, I ultimately knew I was going to get around to giving it a shot but I kind of put it off thinking it had a lot of disastrous potential. I wasn't real enthused about potentially ruining a new pair of shoes that cost me $220 out the door. I would have been in a rage.

BUT once I got going, it was literally nothing. Like, it could not have been easier. My entire time invested might have been 45 minutes, and that includes stuffing the shoes with socks, shoe trees, getting my water ready and wetting up a t shirt ... the prep killed at least 25 minutes making sure I had everything right (and by right I mean, as far as my common sense could tell). The actual ironing was nothing. To be honest I now kind of want to hit them again a little more aggressively and get even more of the effect. That's how confident I am in it once I saw how it works. As I also said, I've never done anything like this to a pair of shoes in my life, so it's not like I'm saying it was easy because I'm experienced at such things.

Anyway, if anyone wants to "fix" the toes on these bad boys, you have nothing to fear if you do what I did. Now I'm interested to see how it holds up. I know what to do if it needs more attention.

You jammed the socks into the toe boxes before the shoe trees? I’m confused. Did the shoe trees end up behind the socks or sitting on top of them?

 

[JeZ13]

Well then ...
Came home. Finally motivated myself to bust out the iron. This could not have been easier. I should have done this three months ago. Completely pleased with the results and it was drama-free. You can obviously see the difference. Oh, and zero wrinkles.
Now just to add the lines with my LIGHT gray pencil and it’s a wrap. Damn this is sick
tonytobacco JRepp23 @marztharealist @spoonmanofthehour I told you I’d get to it eventually LOL

Great job on this. That before and after is crazy.

 

[rainking]

You jammed the socks into the toe boxes before the shoe trees? I’m confused. Did the shoe trees end up behind the socks or sitting on top of them?

Right. I stuffed the socks up into the toes of the shoes first, then I put my shoe trees in behind them . So in reality, it was the socks that served as the backing that I ironed the toes over, not the shoe tree directly. The shoe tree served to keep leverage on the socks and to prevent them from sliding back or moving around pretty much at all when I hit the shoes with the iron.
The reason for this is, and it might depend on the shoe trees someone has, but the ones I have don't come close to actually filling up the toebox. If I had just used the shoe trees alone and started pressing down with my iron, there would have been nothing really supporting the toes. If you look at the shape of these toe boxes and also how high they are, it'll be apparent that you aren't going to find a shoe tree that just happens to fill up ALL of that space inside the shoe by itself. You need the socks in there, otherwise you almost may as well just iron the toes without anything, shoe tree or otherwise, inside the shoe and supporting the toe. But that's going to probably result in the wrinkles no one wants.

 

[BigSparky1316]

whats funny i totally just did mine off a old pair of 89 I'd seen on google images. Thats where I got fk'd up at. rainking your ****s came out super clean man.
Im usually really good at sole swaps and customs but Not ironing toe boxes apparently now lmao.

I wouldnt go any lower with it. Thats what i imagine a brand new OG wouldve looked like more or less before collapsing to a flatter look over time. Id be afraid of the excess material folding/creasing if you go further for no real advantage over what you already did

You're mostly right. Two things at play here in my mind when I said I want to hit it again, that aren't apparent in the pics I posted:

The left shoe on this pair, thanks to JB's crap QC, has a slightly thicker and higher toe rand than the right shoe. It's still slanted now that I took the trees/socks out of the shoes, but I realized after the fact that I could have been a little more aggressive with it. I did what you are suggesting in the moment when I was ironing and said, that's good for now, don't push your luck. Now I see there is room to work with.

The other thing is, all you can really do with these in general is, fix the literal TOE rand slant. Due to the way the shoes are made, there's no way to make the actual overall toe box slant down like the OGs and '99s did. So I'd like to at least get the literal toes more sloped.

But it's only by a millimeter or so of angle, so you're probably right. I should just let it go. Only losers like us even see or notice this ****. We'll see how I feel tomorrow when I get home from work and check them out again. Probably just time to move on

That said, it feels so good to get rid of that ludicrous square/boot/cliff toe these have out of the box. Even if no one else can see it.

 

[rainking]

whats funny i totally just did mine off a old pair of 89 I'd seen on google images. Thats where I got fk'd up at. rainking your ****s came out super clean man.
Im usually really good at sole swaps and customs but Not ironing toe boxes apparently now lmao.

Just curious, what did you use to stuff your shoes with? The way yours came out, it sort of looks like you didn't use anything at all. After doing it to my pair, it's hard for me to imagine how you smashed the toes that much, considering how stiff they actually are. I don't think I could have done that to mine if I had tried, but I had the toes fully stuffed so there wasn't too much give to them.

 

[BigSparky1316]

I used a reshovn8r shoe tree there and just ironed it out. I mean I guess I must of pressed pretty hard Sometimes idk my own strength. But i intended it to have a flat toe too. I like how it looked on the old air maxes and the 89's id seen online. Its all personal preference. No one has said anything in person though I wear them 2 times since Ive done them. I dont think it looks that bad tbh but I guess everyone else does.

 

[rainking]

I used a reshovn8r shoe tree there and just ironed it out. I mean I guess I must of pressed pretty hard Sometimes idk my own strength. But i intended it to have a flat toe too. I like how it looked on the old air maxes and the 89's id seen online. Its all personal preference. No one has said anything in person though I wear them 2 times since Ive done them. I dont think it looks that bad tbh but I guess everyone else does.

The only thing "wrong" with it is that you ended up with those creases. I wonder, if you stuffed the toes with socks/shoe tree like I did, you might be able to iron those creases back out, at least a good amount if not entirely.

 

[rwfanatic]

I used a reshovn8r shoe tree there and just ironed it out. I mean I guess I must of pressed pretty hard Sometimes idk my own strength. But i intended it to have a flat toe too. I like how it looked on the old air maxes and the 89's id seen online. Its all personal preference. No one has said anything in person though I wear them 2 times since Ive done them. I dont think it looks that bad tbh but I guess everyone else does.

What’s the shape looking like after wearing them?

 

[rainking]

I decided to just leave them as they are after last night’s ironing and move to the final touch. I’m pretty satisfied. This is as close as I’m getting to 1989 until Nike releases these years from now with the proper shape, aligned NA on the heel and the lines right out of the box. One down, one to go
tonytobacco JRepp23 @marztharealist

 

[JRepp23]

I decided to just leave them as they are after last night’s ironing and move to the final touch. I’m pretty satisfied. This is as close as I’m getting to 1989 until Nike releases these years from now with the proper shape, aligned NA on the heel and the lines right out of the box. One down, one to go
tonytobacco JRepp23 @marztharealist

Yes sir. Great job man.

 

[rainking]

Yes sir. Great job man.

Thanks dawg. I think it was all totally worth the time and effort seeing how they came out.

 

[green rhino123]

I decided to just leave them as they are after last night’s ironing and move to the final touch.

 

[rainking]

Are you saying you like them better without the lines?
Either way, I didn't add white lines. It's light gray, as it should be. Looks pretty much damn near identical to the OGs and '99s. My pictures actually make them appear a lot more prevalent than they are in person. It's a bit of a PITA to even do it using a pencil as I did, because some of the edges of the durabuck are pretty thin and barely protrude away from the panel they are sewed to, making it difficult to get the pencil onto in those areas. But whatever floats your boat. I think they look ******* sick now.

 

[BigSparky1316]

Are you saying you like them better without the lines?
Either way, I didn't add white lines. It's light gray, as it should be. Looks pretty much damn near identical to the OGs and '99s. My pictures actually make them appear a lot more prevalent than they are in person. It's a bit of a PITA to even do it using a pencil as I did, because some of the edges of the durabuck are pretty thin and barely protrude away from the panel they are sewed to, making it difficult to get the pencil onto in those areas. But whatever floats your boat. I think they look ****ing sick now.

I stuff'd them then went over the the only piece that didn't come out was the side fold on the toe. But most came out

 

[BigSparky1316]

I decided to just leave them as they are after last night’s ironing and move to the final touch. I’m pretty satisfied. This is as close as I’m getting to 1989 until Nike releases these years from now with the proper shape, aligned NA on the heel and the lines right out of the box. One down, one to go
tonytobacco JRepp23 @marztharealist

These look clean as f