This is very much a non-knitting post. Be aware that I’m about to properly nerd out over a craft project and get right into the weeds of detail.

I made myself custom sneakers! I’ve been thinking about making these for years, if not decades (what a terrible thought, how long a creative idea can languish). The iconography and costuming of The Mighty Boosh has always appealed, in particular the character Vince Noir. He’s a self-described electro-goth who likes bright colours, soft fabrics, and owns a mirrorball suit. He looks quite a lot like Joan Jett. There’s much inspiration to draw on.

I finally started the process in July by buying an inexpensive pair of green sneakers.

And, to skip ahead a bit, they ended up looking like this:

As I was waiting for them to arrive, I clambered right into a lovely research rabbit hole. I started off by examining one particular costume from the show, Vince’s Zooniverse jacket. He wears several pin badges on that jacket, but it’s tricky to make them out. After much looking, I found that other fans had identified what they are. I’ll list my sources at the end of the post, for the curious. The top pocket has Johnny Rotten, AC/DC and, the easiest to make out, a badge that says POP. On the bottom pocket there’s a Gary Newman badge.

Once I had that information, I promptly decided to go in a different direction. I wanted to be true to the character, and it was fun to find out exactly what was on the costume, but ultimately I’m no particular fan of AC/DC or Johnny Rotten, so I slipped into the next door rabbit hole of vintage, rock/punk/electro/new wave music button pin badges on eBay.

After a lot of browsing and considering, I decided I just wanted three badges. There’s only so much real estate on a shoe, after all. One would be identical (the POP badge), one for the same artist (Gary Numan), and finally a KISS Army pin, in place of the patch Vince wears on his jacket.

I had the POP badge custom made by Zazzle. I got a free trial to make it cost effective, it would have been far too expensive for just one badge otherwise. I considered getting a batch made, to sell to other Boosh fans on the same journey as me… but figured there probably wasn’t a market to support that. If you want to make your own, it’s the smallest size of round button badge, 1.25″. The background is red (#ED1C24), the text white (#FFFFFF), and it’s 48.97 point Folio Bold Condensed, with text stroke enabled at a size of 75. The text comes right to the edge of the safe print area.

The POP badge takes pride of place in the front of one shoe. The KISS pin went onto the side of that same shoe – that was an easy purchase, there are plenty available and it’s not a vintage collector’s item. Hardly anything to be said about it, honestly!

Then, the Gary Numan badge. The screen accurate badge (see link below) is currently available on eBay in various job-lots of Gary Numan badges, or there are a couple of lots for the badge on its own. However… I wanted to get some sparkle in one of the badges. In the Mighty Book of Boosh, there’s a page showing a variety of pins that Vince might wear. A kind Redditor had shared that page but it’s been taken down – though not before I spotted an alternative Numan badge, using the album cover image for Tubeway Army. And when I went looking for that, I found a sparkly version!

Ideal, I thought. Except that it was damaged – the pin was missing. Undaunted, I paid my £2.71 (including postage) and when it arrived I had a go at fixing it. I took some terrible pictures – I didn’t want to delay progress by waiting for daytime to take photos.

I have a stash of jewellery supplies which includes a big bag of badge backs. They’re inexpensive and not great quality, but there’s nothing wrong with the pins. So I used pliers to pull apart the hinge of one of them and extract the pin.

I wiggled it in to the hinge of the Numan badge, and squeezed the hinge closed. I decided not to address the catch being a bit bent – there didn’t seem any point in putting more stress on it by trying to bend it back again.

The pin was too long, but it closed and fastened! I trimmed it back and then used a file to slightly sharpen the resulting end, so that it would poke through fabric more easily. I didn’t get it to a proper tapered pinpoint, but I didn’t need to.

I can’t tell you how proud I was of this repair. I honestly felt so accomplished and creative and capable. I propped it against the laces for a final photo – you can see that it’s second hand and has lived a life. I like that about it; the asthetic of The Mighty Boosh isn’t precise and perfect, it’s a bit raggedy. The wear on the badge suggests it’s been around, and enjoyed, for a long time.

So that’s phase one complete. A lot of detail, as I warned you at the start! If you’ve arrived here after asking some of the same questions I did (like Googling ‘Vince Noir Zooniverse jacket badges’), I hope it helps. If you’re just here because you generally read my blog for knitting content, thanks for coming with me on a different journey through time and space.

There’s more to come.

Sources:

All sources are pretty old and, while the links below work at time of writing, links contained within those links are mostly broken now.

Note: I use the word holographic below, but collectors/sellers use the words prism, prismatic, or crystal (once or twice I saw the word chromatic used as well). Just in case you’re searching eBay like I did.

Post identifying holographic AC/DC badge (Reddit)

Purchase link for holographic AC/DC badge (Back to the Toyz – though it’s the right way round, and in the show it’s horizontally flipped)

Post identifying Johnny Rotten and Gary Numan badges (The RPF)

Post showing POP, Johnny Rotten and (similar but not identical) AC/DC badges (Reddit)

Purchase link for KISS pin (eBay)