Restoring one of the most iconic sneakers of all time with the one and only @Flippinkickz ! The 1985 Black Toe Jordan 1 is one of the rarest and most sought after sneakers in the game, but there are next to no “wearable” pairs. In today’s Restorations with Vick Almighty him and Flippin Kickz will walk you through the first sneaker restoration on this iconic pair! This complete restoration was a couple days of work, but it was well worth it to make this 38 year old pair of sneakers wearable again.
This specific pair was absolutely trashed from the inside out, so although it sounds like a couple steps; this was a HUGE process. We started with deconstruction before moving into the reconstruction. For the first step we needed to remove the original sole by removing the stitching and using a mechanical pick to take the entire outsole off the uppers. Now this outsole had close to no grip and was not in great condition… The only thing it had going for it was the flexibility was still there, which isn’t something you see on all 85’s.
Once the sole was off we discovered a lot of disintegrated polyurethane from the air unit. It is incredibly rare to find an air unit in tact; especially on a pair of OG’s! Once the sole was off it was time to do some more prep work on the uppers to remove the old glue. Once the outside was all prepped it was time to move onto the interior of the sneaker.
For this step we needed to open up the interior sock liner and the entire shoe to see the condition of the shoes. The interior was in much worse condition than we originally thought once they got inside of the original sock liner. Ultimately we would need to replace the inner lining to make this sneaker wearable once again. With the shoe deconstructed, we needed to take care of a quick cleaning on the uppers! For the cleaning we relied on RESHOEVN8R’S products to remove the dust, grime and oils that the sneaker has collected since 85.
One benefit of RESHOEVN8R’s Solution is it not only breaks down the grime, but it conditions the materials as you clean. Plus the brushes and natural solution are delicate enough to use on even the most fragile pairs. With the cleaning out of the way these two masterminds needed to allow the sneaker to dry, but during the drying process it was really important to reshape the sneaker.
This sneaker was fairly misshapen and crushed in some areas, so it was going to take some work to get it to look right! The main issue is the crushed heel counter, so we need to replace that to give the sneaker the shape that we all know and love. We also had to remove the creasing using the iron method from all the way around the shoe. This made the sneaker look a little better, but with 30 year old creases it isn’t perfect!
The reconstruction process was a lot of steps! Did you have any idea how many steps were needed to make a pair wearable again?! We are making process though… The donor soles are prepped and aged. The paint job is in the works and we only have a couple more steps to wrap this up. The HARDEST part of this might have been repairing the wings logo, but you know Alex killed that paint job.
Let’s keep it moving, it is time to stitch it all up and secure everything that we have put into the shoe. Plus we needed to repair any stitching that has faded away. The tongue tags were one of the final details needed. Shout out to Alex for sacrificing his own pair to give this project the love they needed. Now we needed to put the sneaker back together with the new soles to make this 1985 Black Toe Jordan 1 fully wearable again!
This restoration took days, but they are now FULLY wearable! Plus Vick and Alex did the best they could to keep this sneaker as original as possible. Now with all that being said.. What was your favorite part of the entire restoration?!
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What's up everybody welcome back to the Channel I'm Vic Almighty and today we're Going to be working on one of the rarest 85 Jordan one colorways to ever come out The black toes you don't see these every Day especially in this condition they're Going to need a lot of work but I can do This one by myself so I brought out my Good friend once again Alex AKA flipping Kicks welcome back to the channel bro Thanks for having me back out so these Are going to be a handful there's a lot We got to do to them we want to keep a Lot of it original we're going to start With the soul swap then move into the Padding swap then a clean then paint Then some scuff fix and these should be Perfect out for that that sounds like a Lot of work bro it is going to be a ton Of work let's get Started as is these sols are no good on The bottom there is zero grip on the Sides most of the texture is fully gone The only thing that's going for the shoe Is that the sole is still fully flexible But that's not enough we got to replace The entire thing to do so we're going to Be using a sharp blade to cut all the Stitching throughout the entire [Music] Sole one of the most trash pairs that I've ever worked on [Music] Alex is just judging me right now got
All the stitching out now how do we take Off the sole so we got what was Anchoring the sole down but we still Need to separate the sole for that we're Going to use a mechanical pick it's Sharp but it's not sharp Like a Knife It's just sharp enough to where it's Going to help us separate the leather From the old rubber out soole that'll Help us pull it apart do you have Another one of those no all Right [Music] Oh The Forbidden [Music] Goodies I do this all day every day man You sure you don't want me to do it I'll Let you take credit cut the audio Guys so far so good with the Deconstruction process the outsides look Bad but the insights look worse you want To explain to them what this is yeah so That is what's called an air wedge well What what's left of a air wedge so this Is all polyurethane and air unit that's Deteriorated through hydraulis over the Years every Jordan one even the Originals have them and once in a while We find a good air unit which is what we Have in here even though the Polyurethane goes bad every once in a While the air units last so he's done Like over a 100 swaps over the years and What you've only found like 5 to 10 air
Units that are fully intact a handful They're extremely rare they're super Rare and fragile that's why I have it in The special box that says do not touch It's cracking if I was to touch it it Would probably fall apart but it's a Really cool piece of History you don't See these every day SS are off on to the Prep work so now we have to get this Leather ready for glue we can't just Throw glue on top of here we actually Have to remove the old stuff on this old Thick leather the best way to do that is A Dremel and a sanding drum usually we'd Have to Sky it but 85s are just kind of Unique where you don't have to do that You can go straight into the Dremel [Music] Dremeling is complete we got rid of all The old glue we're ready for some glue But that's later on in this video next We got to get inside the sock ler to Remove all the old padding to do so with A seam ripper we're going to pop open The stitching on the side panel on both Sides to access what's inside the sock Liner you want to explain to what what's Inside so the padding on 85s is really Unique because every model of 85 was Made in different factories and their Paddings were different on this pair it Was made in the STP Factory so the Padding is actually really really good
In the upper half in the bottom half not So much so we're going to open it up see How much we really have to do we might Do a full might do half but we'll take a Look at it real quick let's get into the Factories do you know off the rift how Many factories there is I always forget This I can't remember exactly but There's by ty1 th STP I'm sure I'm Forgetting something lots of information There so again touching on what he was Talking about padding on this shoe is Really soft it doesn't need to be Replaced on the top I think think what Do you think we're going to find out so With that being said this shoe was made In a different Factory it was made in Ty1 if you hear the Collar these are super crunchy on this Pair they're actually still pretty soft But once we open it up we'll see what's Inside okay so we cut the stitching but We still need to open this up we're Going to pull this off and then we'll Have access inside to the [Music] Padding All right we got the sock liner up how's It look inside there Vic honestly it Looks pretty bad on the outside it feels Nice and soft but when you look inside It looks bad it's got to get fully Replaced we got to put all that stuff Out yeah it's a it's a dirty job but
Let's get to it all [Music] Right it's looking good guys we got the Old so off all the guts removed now it's On to the cleaning we got to get rid of All this Grime and dirt that's trapped Inside the leather for this we're going To be using some shumat solution soft And medium bristle brush the soft brush Is for delicacy we want to go over the Entire shoes to start breaking down the Grime and dirt afterwards we'll use the Medium bristle brush to give it a deeper Scrub the only area we're going to be Very careful is the collars on any 85 is The most delicate area we don't want to Cause more damage to it good let's get It all Right [Music] Cleaning is all done these shoes look a Million times better A lot of grime came Off next step is to let them dry outside In the sun as is there's not too much Structure going on in the upper it's Pretty flimsy we're going to be using Some shoel that you used to make Sneakers with we're going to wrap the Upper around it then we're going to put Some rubber bands on the toebox area so It could be on there nice and tight once They fully dry the upper should have a Bit more structure to [Music]
[Music] It shoes are completely dried off the Rip I can already tell the uppers have a Lot more structure to it let's take off The Sho last how they look look good They already have a lot better shape Except for this back piece yeah this Back piece is pretty crushed man that's Probably the worst part about the shoe How are we going to fix that so inside Here is the heel counter which is all Crumpled up which is giving this Appearance do you have any material to Replace that yes sir we do we do have Some heal counter material this is Texon We are going to be replacing it with This stuff we also have a pattern piece That we can trace and cut out shout out To my boy maxio for this [Music] Piece potentially like let's say this is Glue on here and the shoe is very easily Like that at least there's some [Music] Structure new heel counterparts are Fully cut out before we install them we Got to take care of some damage on the Outside on the heel there's a big heavy Crease going on in this area we want to Try to minimize it as best as we can so For this we got the shoel inside the Shoe we got a wet cloth and a small iron This is a two-man job Alex is going to Be holding the shoe while I go in and
Use the iron to get rid of the Creasing all done with the iron it did Help a little bit at the moment this Area is a little bit wet cuz of the wet Cloth that we use the next step is Gluing on the Texon heel counters but we Can mix wet leather with glue so we're Going to have to wait a little bit and Let these dry but we still have more Work to do what do we got so we're going To cut out the padding for the internals We have a upper ankle piece and a lower Ankle piece we're going to do three Layers of each stacked together and then Glue them [Music] In now that the padding is cut out we're Going to use some spray adhesive to bond The three pieces [Music] Together internals are fully cut out now It's time to install them inside what's First first we're going to get some good Old bars super stick put a couple layers Down here let it dry heat it up stick it Together cool so this part's first once It's installed we'll move on to these Pieces yep that'll be nice all Right all right the glue is dry now it's Time to heat it up and stick it to the Honors It's going to be kind of interesting Heat it's hard to get in [Music]
Place so far so good you guys Alex Inserted the new heel counter piece it's A lot straighter we eliminated that Crush look it's looking good what's next We're going to install the ankle padding Before we do that we have to put this Small piece of canvas on the inside Right along the collar that's going to Help the collar be a little stronger so It's not collapsing so this glue method Is called the wet method instead of the Typical put the glue down let it dry Then heat it we are actually just going To stick it while it's still wet the Reason being is if we let it dry and we Heat it we potentially could get some Wrinkles along this collar and that Would not be good for appearance so with It being wet we can kind of move things Around to where it's all flush the Collars are definitely a lot stronger Now onto the padding yep we are going to Do it the same way the wet method we're Going to open this up put the pading in We're going to start right here Stick it And then go from side to side once you Glue this part inside does it need more Adjustments if there is a little Overhang on the sides we're just going To cut it off but other than that no It's pretty Plug and Play sounds pretty [Music] Easy all right so Vic did a great job on The padding thanks Alex Next Step we're
Going to do is tape off everything but The stck laner area we're going to be Using some spray glue basically the idea Here is to not get any spray glue Anywhere on the shoe that's why we're Taping it off after that we're going to Start locking in the sock [Music] [Music] Liner On To The Next Step we got to age Our donor Souls as is are way too white We got to give it a nice age cream tone So for this we're going to be using some Coffee I took these SS from a pair of Varsity Red 85 Jordan 1 highs that I got From trade block trade block made sourc In the donor sneakers for this project Super easy I knew I needed some 85s so I Searched for the shoe and found a trade That I was willing to make I ended up Trading some loss of founds since I Doubled up on them luckily there was a Public offer for this trade but if there Wasn't I would have just created my own To see if anybody else in the community Would have taken it we're always looking To get different pairs to the channel I'm always in need of a base shoe for Customs and anything that needs a Restoration or a used pair of shoes that Can use a good cleaning hit us on the App you can follow us at rejuvenator if You're looking to trade your sneakers For a new pair trade block is available
On the Apple app store Google Play store Or online at trade block. us let's AG [Music] [Music] Souls all done with the out sools They're nicely age we'll come back to Those later we're back on to the uppers We got to do a paint job on the black White and red as is they're heavily Scuffed we want to be very strategic on How we lay down the paint we want to Leave a lot of that original patina First we got to do some prep work as is There's a lot of rough areas on the Leather using some 800 grit sandpaper We're going to send it down and get it As smooth as [Music] Possible [Music] Sanding is complete overall the shoe is A lot smoother for the white area we are Going to be using acetone cotton swabs And cotton balls to remove any leftover Dirt in the creases while using the Acetone we want to avoid the wings logo I'm going to have to touch that up later And I don't want to have to redo the Whole thing with a stencil we are trying To keep this as original as possible so Using the template that is already there Is our best way to do so prep is Complete we did the sanding and acetone Now we're on to the paint job we got our
Two colors mixed up a nice creamy white Not too vibrant same thing with the red We're going to be laying it down with Some paint brushes for this paint job we Don't want to cake it on again we don't Want to make it look brand new there's a Lot of creasing going on there's natural Age on the shoe if we do a brand new Paint job it's going to look very off so When we lay down the paint it'll be nice Than even coats with some patina left on The leather one thing we don't want to Touch is a stitching cuz that's one Obvious way that the shoe has been Restored you want to take care of the White I'll take care of the red sure Dude sounds Good [Music] [Music] Wow that was really straining on my eyes Paint job is complete these look smooth Red black and white is fully laid down We did a great job of not getting any Paint on the stitching and leaving a lot Of the patina around the sneaker it Looks natural how was painting that Wings logo These Wings logos were in Like nightmare now that we're done with The paint what do you want to tackle Next all right we still need to go in And add some stitching in some areas for Example we laid down the sock liner but We still hav't locked it in on this L
Stitch right here there are some areas Where the stitching has been completely Worn away such as this line right here Over here there's some missing thread on This shoe over here there's two lines Completely missing so we got to go in And fill that in with the post Bed [Music] Wow that stitching looks fantastic Vick What do you think we're going to have to Do about these tongue tags though so as You can see the tongue tags are really Beat the Nike Air is completely worn Away I checked the Boneyard there isn't Any black and white 85 style tongue tags However I did notice my good friend Alex Is rocking a pair of 8 85 retro white And black Jordan ones with the exact Same style tongue that we need n do we Have to man come on man do you want to Do this restoration right come On hey [Music] Hey white toe Jordan [Music] Ones your donation is much appreciated Now put your shoes back [Music] On [Music] All right so Vic got the tongue tags on They look great now it's time to do the Gluing we're going to spray some
Adhesion Promoter on the insides of both The soles put a couple layers of glue Down same thing for the Uppers So one thing I learned from your patreon On 85s you like to start on the toe jump To the back and then do the sides is That what's happening today that's Exactly what's happening and if you guys Want to learn more in depth not only This model but other models as well I Have a patreon account flip and kicks Same name as my Instagram where I have Over 250 private YouTube videos Exclusive only for patreon members and Not just cuz he's my friend I'm Subscribed to his patreon as well cuz There's tons of information every single [Music] Day [Music] So the souls are finally on how do they Look Vick dude I'm not going to lie These are crazy they look perfect bro Insane what's next so next we got to Take care of what those are what are These Alex those are the lasting boards So those go where this big void of a Hole is that you saw when it was up we Need to cut out the shape of them glue Them in these are clearly disgusting Unusable the top has completely worn Away we're just going to replace [Music]
Them before we put in the text on board We're going to stitch the soles together We stain the thread with the soles at The same time so that way it matches the Color [Music] [Music] Perfect all right the stitching is done What's next the lasting boards we still Need to slide them inside Alex already Applied glue just got to heat it up yes Sir [Music] Time for Laces that's it the 1985 black toe Restoration is finally done dude these Came out amazing night and day Difference how do you feel about them I Am so impressed basically for the last Few days we took the shoe apart replaced All the guts replaced the soles we try To keep this restoration as original as Possible when it comes to Black toes Their unicorns you don't see them every Day we wanted to take the correct Approach on these and not ruin them on These we did a soul swap a complete Padding swap a heel counter swap we Cleaned the shoe using rejuvenator Products then did a complete repaint and Finished it off swapping out the tongue Tags real quick let me show you guys the Old Parts disgusting broken down soles the
Heel counters were not wearable anymore Padding was disgusting all of the stuff Was trash now we replaced it with Authentic Nike Parts new padding this Shoe is good to go ready to be worn for Years to come or displayed real quick Dude before we wrap it up I actually Have a gift for you and your client on How to preserve this piece of History Capsule is a reusable airtight Preservation pod that stores sneakers to Double the lifespan and keep them in Pristine condition it protects materials Like polyurethane rubber suede newbook Leather canvas denim knit and nylon Preserve your grills with the lab tested Pods and preservative they're designed To double your shoes light spand and Prevent yellowing aging and crumbling by Two Times Rails preserved thank you again for Coming out for this project man this Restoration would have not been possible Without flipping kicks till next time Dude thanks for having me out if you Guys want to see more in- depth howtos Tips and tricks does and don'ts about Sneakers you can hit up my Instagram or My patreon both the same name flip and Kicks till next time [Music] Guys [Music]
