How do you avoid expensive shoes for a cosplay?

[Kirei]

I'm working on a cosplay that needs some biiiiig military style boots, of course everything online is £80+ and everything in stores is £100+

How do you all avoid spending tonnes of money on the right shoes for a cosplay? do you get them from a specific seller? (could you share them with me if you do please? ) or do you just use some you already have/ shoe covers?

[duoinchains]

Originally Posted by Kirei

I'm working on a cosplay that needs some biiiiig military style boots, of course everything online is £80+ and everything in stores is £100+

How do you all avoid spending tonnes of money on the right shoes for a cosplay? do you get them from a specific seller? (could you share them with me if you do please? ) or do you just use some you already have/ shoe covers?

Depends on the exact syle of boot, but you could try your local Army Surplus shop - my latest pair of German paraboots (which I wear daily) were £25 last year and there are quite a few styles out there. Or check fleabay. Or some of the online Surplus sellers. (Google 'Army Surplus' or 'Government Surplus')

Got a pic of the character you need boots for, I can probably figure out a suitable military type?

Even a standard pair of 8-hole DMs might be suitable and they are usually around the £40 mark, 16-holers maybe £50 (plus you can wear those daily and get more use out of them)

[GRCC]

Don't Millets have them cheap?

[LukePierce]

Usually, but it's even cheaper with a Armed Forces ID card


For cheap military boots, you could do worse than Silverman, there are also military specialists in Europe who are pretty reasonable as well.

There's actually pretty good reason why most of the boots you've been finding are so expensive: they're the ones that last a long while and don't require that much breaking in. The ones on the cheaper end of the spectrum (the ones we get issued) have a tendency to rip your feet and ankles to shreds - unfortunately the one method to help sort this out is actually quite disgusting and involves drinking a LOT of water. However, you'll have no problems after then.

I would recommend One Legged Jockey, but the boots they tend to sell are, well, crap to be honest and definitely not worth shelling out anything for.

[Kirei]

Originally Posted by duoinchains

Got a pic of the character you need boots for, I can probably figure out a suitable military type?

basically, I'm doing a RCMP (aka a 'mountie') cosplay which i need some sturdy looking boots for, but I'm also cosplaying as the major from GITS and I decided if I can just get some mid-calf length army style boots they'd be a good compramise for the two cosplays as opposed to buying 2 sets of shoes.

Mountie Feet: http://www4.worldisround.com/photos/1/169/579.jpg
The Major: http://dianimex.com/shop/images/Kusanagi_Motoko.jpg

Edit: I think something like this https://www.army-surplus.org.uk/patr...-new-p-62.html would work really well actually, I'm keeping my eyes open for something less than £23 (that's how much I just found them for on ebay)

[LuciaDuvant]

have you tried trawling round charity shops/car boot sales?

find great stuff at next to nothing prices

[Kirei]

So for, no luck... Sadly, I have quite large feet *shame* and all the shoes I find are either too big (men's sizes) or waay too small (women's). I'm still keeping my options open though Trying my local army surplus store today. Hoping they can supply me with a cross-strap and belt too

[Kirei]

Hi everyone!
I just thought I'd update by letting you all know that I managed to get the shoes for both of my cosplays for £25 total!

On my way home from work I spotted a shoe store that was closing down. They had some fine looking black boots for my kusanagi cosplay (and I can use them for interviews etc too) for £20 and a pair of high brown leather boots that are literally PERFECT for my Mountie cosplay at only £5

So I'm pretty much sorted now