Tiny Reebok Nano 2.0s

For Father’s Day this year I made a tiny pair of Reebok Nano 2.0 shoes for a very special CrossFitting Dad-to-be.

Now the first thing you have to know about CrossFitters is that they take their shoes VERY seriously…also they’ll own several pairs. One of NH’s favourite CF shoes is his grey and blue Nano 2.0’s that we bought from the Reebok store in Las Vegas.

Before it occurred to me to try making them myself I was going to buy a pair of tiny baby sports shoes from the shops but not only were none of them CF enough they were also super expensive. Way too expensive for babies that lose things…then I remembered that a while ago I bought a pack of patterns for adult soft shoes/slippers and it also included…BABY SHOES!

The pattern I selected is the Kath Baby Shoe by ithinksew. I like this pattern because it has a separate pattern piece for the toe cap which is most like the original shoe and I could sew it with blue inside and get a little hint of extra colour.

I had everything I needed in my stash which was great because as soon as the inspiration struck me I just got started.

I added a black overlay to the soles with top stitching and some extra blue stripes to look like the soles of the grown up shoes (picture coming later…)

The inside of the Nano 2.0s is blue so I cut the tongue out in grey and blue. Then I made a tiny black tag and used red stitching to create the Reebok delta logo.

I drew this on butter paper first and then stitched over the top. After carefully ripping away the butter paper I pulled all the threads to the back and tied them off.

It was really tricky to stitch accurately and I ended up having to make three of them before I ended up with two that were similar enough to each other to use.

I cut the shoe upper and toe cap two toned as well and I found the perfect sized eyelets in my magic Box-of-Everything. I briefly contemplated how to colour them blue but nothing I had on hand would have been permanent.

The retro “swoosh” was the most time consuming part to recreate. I stitched this on before stitching the CB seam.

I started with a black outline, stitching over butter paper again. Then after ripping that off  I filled in the outline with a white zig-zag. I thought it looked pretty awful at first but I just kept filling it in more and more and now I think they look ok…

Attaching the soles was the last step before a turning them right side out and a tiny bit of hand sewing to close.

The pattern instructions we’re…ok. Prior sewing knowledge definitely helps you get through the written instructions and a few more photos would have been nice.

The whole thing was pretty fiddly due to the size of the pattern pieces and of course you do everything twice! The seam allowance is just 1/4″ so I used a quilting foot instead of my regular foot as a guide.

Now, shoes need a shoe box!

The original 2.0 box looked like a red sea container so I printed striped paper with the Reebok and CrossFit logos and cut them up to wrap the box.

In keeping with the “I didn’t buy anything new to make these” theme I went hunting for cardboard in the recycling bin…If there are any CrossFitters reading this you will understand the inside joke that of course the only acceptable cardboard to use was from a La Croix box…I guess FitAid would have worked too but this one was handy.

Hint of hint of Lime flavour.

And here they are…

A narrow grey Petersham ribbon worked great for the laces.

And let’s just say CrossFitting Dad-to-be was super surprised (mostly because baby isn’t actually here yet) and also because they are pretty awesome.

I am super proud of them.

Now Baby and Daddy can go to CrossFit with matching shoes!

THE DETAILS:

Pattern – Kath Baby Shoe by ithinksew, size 2 (3-6 months)

Fabric – Grey drill, various coloured cottons, eyelets, Petersham ribbon, thread