Light Up Crocs

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Odalys Benitez 

When I first laid eyes on the Adafruit wearables line, I gasped. I couldn't believe I lived in the age where electronics could be physically sewn into clothes. The possibilities seemed endless. With my partner's birthday around the corner, I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to combine wearables technology with their love for Crocs. Thus - light up Crocs was born I remember starting the project and thinking this was going to be the easiest thing in the world. Crocs have holes where LEDs can go, LEDs sewn together with thread, and small pouch on the croc strap to hold microcontroller & battery. Unfortunately, it wasn't as straightforward as I would have liked. I couldn't rely on the conductive thread to supply enough current to the LEDs, and the digital signal was spotty and unreliable. I then switched to enamel wire, which was able to supply the needed current, but found that constant foot movement would apply too much strain on the wires, and they would break easily. Ultimately, I ended up using continuous-flex automation wire, which removed some of the seamlessness that conductive thread provided, but I attempted to make it as comfortable as possible by sandwhiching the circuit with extra fabric. Good thing Crocs are roomy!


The LED circuit consisted of an Adafruit Flora, neopixels, Adafruit BLE, and battery. These were easy to acquire all on the Adafruit page. I wrote code in C to create different color settings, and control LEDs via a phone app through a bluetooth module.