Hey guys/girls! Earlier I posted a before and after of a pair of Common Projects Achilles Low in white that I restored, all for under $100 total. Since people seemed interested and because it was so much fun, I'm giving you your own guide on how to do the exact same thing. During this journey I found there was a lot of scattered information, so I was Googling and watching YouTube frequently, but fortunately for you I'm going to provide links to condense all of that knowledge into one post. Also, this tutorial can easily be applied to other colors of Common Projects and really any high quality sneaker out there.
Let's get into it.
Step 0: What You'll Need
I happened to have a lot of these things, like shoe trees and shoe cleaner, already laying around, but I cannot emphasize enough the free alternatives are just as good. You can accomplish all the same things with these alternatives, so borrow some q-tips from someone with clean ears and you're all set.
- A pair of Common Projects (obviously... but I'll explain how to get them at the price you want in a minute)
- A pair of shoe trees (free alternative: newspaper)
- Shoe cleaner (free alternative: 1:1 ratio of dish soap and water)
- Horsehair brush (free alternative: a toothbrush)
- Microfiber towel (free alternative: any towel)
- A paintbrush (free alternative: q-tips)
- An iron (free alternative: your parent's iron)
- 1 oz. Angelus White Paint (buy here for $2.95)
- 1 oz. Angelus Matte Finisher (buy here for $4.95)
- 1.76 oz. Tarrago White Shoe Cream (buy here $3.05)
Here's a faux-artsy picture of my supplies.
Step 1a: Finding Your Common Projects Size
Before you even go looking for your pair of CPs you need to understand the sizing, because CPs run large and if you find "the perfect pair" and they don't end up fitting you'll be disappointed that you worked that sweet deal for nothing.
Use this handy chart from Zappos. Find your size, then go a half size down. Example: I'm a US 10.5, so a half size down makes me a US 10, then according to the chart I'm a size EUR 43. I should only be looking for size 43 CPs.
Step 1b: Buying Your Pair of Common Projects
This is probably the hardest part because it takes some time, but that doesn't mean there aren't plenty of options.
I went to Ebay and Grailed to look, but I'm sure there are plenty of other places too. I searched "common projects achilles" and did not include the words "low" or "white" because I figured, based on the way their search engine works, that some listings wouldn't have that in the title or the body so there's a chance a qualified pair wouldn't come up–overly careful, I know.
When you're looking at listings you need to consider a few things important to filtering out bad listings:
- Make sure the gold lettering isn't smudged on either shoe. I personally, don't have the artistic skill to repaint that on the shoe and don't want to try.
- Make sure the soles aren't too worn. A little is okay, but I can't repair a worn sole without buying new soles and paying to have them stitched on.
On Grailed, the prices were around $150 or so for pairs that qualified, but Grailed shows you how long the listing has been up and it allows you to make an offer. Use this to your advantage!
Here's the listing I got my CPs from
. I sent my seller an offer for $85 when they were at $150. He rejected it, but I messaged anyway and said, "I can pay for these right away if you're interested." No response. So I waited a month until I saw he'd dropped the price to $120 and I offered $75, again messaging him saying, "I can pay for these immediately." He accepted and off we went!
When I got the shoes they look rough. Here's a few angles from the front, from the top, the awful scuff on the heel, and the dirty tongue.
Step 2: Cleaning You Common Projects
They arrived in the mail, you did it! Now it's time to clean them. This is going to probably do 80% of the job right off the bat. I happened to have shoe cleaner that was literally 8 years old, but using a 1:1 ratio of dish soap and water will be just fine for this. I also had a brush with the cleaner but a toothbrush will be the job too.
Take out the laces before this and put them in a glass of warm water and dish soap. They can soak while you're cleaning the shoes.
Go to your bathtub, driveway, or wherever and fill a bucket with cold water and your cleaning soap. mix it up a little and start brushing your CPs.
Don't be afraid to really scrub the shoes. You should pull the tongue out, do the inside, scrape off anything really gross with your hands. My only advice is be careful near the gold lettering. I never really scrubbed the gold lettering myself so I'd advise just not.
Here's what my shoes looked like after just cleaning them with the brush and then rinsing them. As you can see they're pretty good, but they still have those deep scratches and that awful heel scratching, also they're a little creased.
Step 3: Getting Rid of the Creases
After I scrubbed down my CPs and dried them with a cloth, I immediately put in some shoe trees I had, but if you don't have those just stuff them with newspaper. The point is to help them keep shape and to absorb any wetness on the inside of the shoe.
You don't need to wait until they're completely dry because this next step requires dampness.
With the shoe tree or newspaper in your CPs so that they're pushed into a good shape, get a towel damp and lay it over a crease on your shoe. Then take your iron and put it on cotton mode and gently iron over where the creases are. Don't let the iron sit too long and go over the creases multiple times. Here's how good the toe box looked after I went over it.
Here's a really helpful video that can show you better than I can explain it.
After you're done let your CPs sit and truly dry for at least a few hours.
Step 4: Painting the Scratches and Scuffs Away
This is the other part that makes a huge difference, painting the scratches and scuffs.
Using your Angelus White Paint (you can also use Angelus Flat White, but it might have different results), take small amounts on your paintbrush or q-tip and gently go over the bad areas with thin coats. Once you've done one thing coat, wait about 15-20 minutes before putting on a second.
To be honest, I just painted both entire sneakers because I thought it looked good. Here's what mine looked like after painting.
Once you've painted them let them sit overnight. They feel dry but also a little bit sticky, so you're not quite done.
Step 5: Painting the Finisher on Your CPs
Now that they're looking great, let's make sure they stay that way. Use a dry towel to wipe them down and get any small fibers or dust off of your CPs before painting on the finisher.
Once they're clean, paint your Angelus Matte Finisher on the same way you painted them earlier–slow thin coats, letting each coat dry for 15-20 min. Again, be careful near the gold lettering. I used a small brush to get closer to them, but I didn't really get that close.
The finisher is going to look a little milky at first and that's okay, it will dry clean. Here's a video showing someone using the Angelus Matte Finisher on their own sneakers so you can see how it looks.
Let the finisher dry for at least 24 hours. They're going to look a little glossy and feel a little stiff after they dry and that's okay.
Step 6: Using Shoe Cream
The last step is to use shoe cream. This is going to help the shoes feel less stiff and be less glossy. It's really easy to apply the cream, here's a video that shows you, but there's no exact amount or bad way to do it. Just take a towel or your fingers and rub the shoe cream on your shoes. If you want, when you're done you can use a dry towel to buff them, but you don't have to.
You don't need to let the cream dry or anything, but I would say to let them sit for 15-20 minutes.
Bonus Step: Replacing Soles and Laces
If the laces are super gross, you might just want to buy new ones. You can search for CP laces if you'd like or just buy some simple white ones. It's hard to find as good quality and style laces as the stock CP ones, but here's the ones I bought as backups just to test out. They're probably the closest thing I've found the the originals.
The soles are a different animal. I really recommend getting CPs that have a nice sole already, but if you do want to replace the soles, here's a link to the Margom soles for $40. You'll need to take them to your nearest cobbler and have him stitch them on which may be expensive.
And that's it! Your CPs are done.
Here's a picture of them laced and on my feet in case you want to see what they look like when truly done–I know the socks I'm wearing look ridiculous. Take them for a test drive and enjoy! If you have any questions I'm happy to answer.
Submitted February 10, 2019 at 08:07PM by GoCrapYourself http://bit.ly/2SqCKzm
