Homemade Huaraches

The real beauty of huarache sandals is how easy and inexpensive they are to make. I have now made three pairs of homemade huaraches, and spent a total of twelve dollars in the process. One pair was for me, one for my wife, and one for my five year old daughter for her birthday.

Golf Cart Tire Huaraches

 The first two pairs I made, for my wife and myself, were made from a discarded golf cart tire. It had been heavily worn and had lost a lot of its thickness, so I took it home, traced my feet and my wife's feet on it, cut it with a utility knife and had my huarache soles. Putting the holes in it was a challenge. This rubber is dense and tough. Using a hole punch and hammer was like trying to wreck a building by throwing socks at it. So I got my drill and drilled the holes. I bought a camping clothesline and used if for the string.

Golf Cart Huaraches On
My Foot

You can see in the picture when these are not on my foot, they curve up like, well, like golf cart tires, but when they are on my feet they conform pretty well, and the "toe spring" keeps them from snagging when I step over obstacles.

I recently bought some Xero Shoes Huaraches, and I have to admit they are more comfortable, lighter, and have better ground feel than my homemade huaraches. When I got them, my daughter watched me putting them together and asked if she could have a pair of huaraches. My little girl has an artistic streak and a DIY attitude, so for her birthday I bought a couple of leather scrap kits, one tough, hard leather bag, and one suede scrap bag. I was able to piece together enough scraps to make her two pairs of huaraches. We finished the first pair up today.

Gluing the footbed to the sole.

To have a kit ready to surprise her with for her birthday, I traced her Soft Star Shoes and cut out a tough leather sole and a suede footbed for each foot. On her birthday morning I presented her with her pieces, wrapped in leather cord for the ties. She wanted to get right on it, so we got out our multipurpose arts and crafts work surface, (pizza box) and glued the footbeds to the soles.

55 pounds and a book make a
 great press.

I don't have any clamps, so to press them while they dried, I used what I had handy.

 Once the glue was dry, we punched holes.

Hammer Time!

 We strung the laces and tied them on.

 My girl, her girl, and her-aches.