Stencils 101: The Ultimate How-To Guide on Using Vinyl Stencils to Customize Sneakers

Disclaimer: This guide assumes that you have prior knowledge of how to customize shoes and solely covers how to use stencils. To learn more about how to paint sneakers, click here.

There’s no law that says every custom-painted shoe must be created one specific way. Every sneaker customizer has different preferences and methods that they use to get the job done. In no way are we saying that anything in this guide is required.

That said, one common tool that sneaker artists use to paint clean designs, consistent patterns, and professional-looking logos is the vinyl stencil. They’re cheap to buy, easy-to-use, get the job done, and take your custom sneakers to the next level.

This how-to guide will take you step-by-step through how to use vinyl stencils when creating your custom shoes. If you have any questions that are left unanswered, feel free to reach out to us. 

Materials:

To follow along with this guide, you will need:

• The shoe you would like to customize (Or whatever you are working on*).
• The stencil(s) you would like to use. If you need stencils, take a look at our selection or custom-order a design of your choice.
• A hair dryer or heat gun.
• Xacto Knife
• Angelus paint
• Paint brush or airbrush

These aren’t required, but are helpful:

• Transfer tape/paper
• Insert tool to weed the stencils
• Tape

*This guide was created with sneaker customization in mind, but can be applied to other art projects as well.

The Finished Product

We will be demonstrating how to create the red and white Louis Vuitton pattern used in Supreme and Louis Vuitton’s 2017 collaboration, but these instructions apply to all vinyl stencils. We used a Nike Air Jordan 1 High as our base shoe, our LV Stencil Pack, and Fire Red and White Angelus acrylic paint.

Negative Space vs. Positive Space

When working with vinyl stencils you have to decide whether you want to work with the negative space or the positive space of your design. Understanding positive vs. negative space can be fairly hard and to be honest, we still get them mixed up sometimes.

The positive space of a stencil is the design itself. So in this example, it’s the white LV pattern.

The negative space of a stencil is the background of the design, or whatever is around the positive space. In this example it’s the red background.

To differentiate between the two, we use what we like to call the tracing method and the masking method. What do you do when you don’t want to get paint on an area of your shoe? You mask it off with tape. What do you do when you want to copy a design and don’t have a stencil? You trace it. For some designs it will be easier to work with positive space and for others it will be easier to work with negative space.

Tracing Method

The tracing method utilizes the negative space of the stencil. That means you will have to paint the background first and then use the stencil to fill in your design with whatever color(s) you want. With this method you are using the stencil to cover the background so that you can fill-in, or trace, your design. This is most ideal when you want your design to be more detailed, like splatter (improve)

Step 1: Tape off the areas that you do not want to paint. 

Step 2: Apply a couple light layers of primer if necessary (every artist has different preferences). Use a hair dryer or heat gun to heat-set the paint if needed.

Step 3: Using either a brush or airbrush, paint a few light coats of your background color until you have a solid and consistent background. Heat-set if necessary.

Step 4: Remove the negative space of your stencil and carefully place and position it over the area you are painting. Use a hair dryer or heat gun to make sure the vinyl stencil bonds tightly with the surface of your shoe. This is key.

Step 5: Do 1-2 more light coats of your base color, this will help minimize bleeding (see below). Heat-set if needed.

Step 6: Pick whatever color(s) you would like the design (positive space of your stencil) to be, and use your brush or airbrush to fill in the areas that are not covered by your stencil. Make sure to use light coats, this will also help minimize bleeding. Heat-set if needed.

Step 7: Once the paint has dried, warm up your stencil for about the millionth time. Then slowly and carefully peel it off of your shoe.

Step 8: If any paint has bled through the stencil, touch up any areas of the background that need to be touched up.

Step 9: You’re done!

Masking Method

Earlier we mentioned that when you don’t want to get paint on an area of a shoe, you mask it off. The masking method uses the same ideology except instead of using tape, you’re using a vinyl stencil. With this method, you start by painting the color(s) that you would like your design to be and then painting the background. This method is most ideal when you want the areas that you are covering to be one color, or a gradient. (fix)

Step 1: Tape off the areas that you do not want to paint. 

Step 2: Apply a couple light layers of primer if necessary (every artist has different preferences). Use a hair dryer or heat gun to heat-set the paint if needed.

Step 3: Decide what color you would like your design to be and then, using either a brush or airbrush, paint a bunch of light coats until you have a solid and consistent color. Heat-set if needed.

Step 4: Remove the positive space of your stencil and carefully place and position it over the area you are painting. The area that you are covering will be where your design shows up. Use a hair dryer or heat gun to make sure the vinyl stencil bonds tightly with the surface of your shoe. This is key.

Step 5: Do 1-2 more light coats of your original color, this will help minimize bleeding (see below). Heat-set if needed.

Step 6: Use whatever color(s) you would like the background of your design (negative space of your stencil) to be, and fill in the areas that are not covered by your stencil with a brush or airbrush. Make sure to use light coats, this will also help minimize bleeding. Heat-set if needed.

Step 7: Once the paint has dried, warm up your stencil for about the millionth time. Then slowly and carefully peel it off of your shoe.

Step 8: If any paint has bled through the stencil, touch up any areas of the background that need to be touched up.

Step 9: You’re done!

How to Prevent Paint from Bleeding Through Stencils

One problem that many customizers have when they remove their stencils is the bleeding of paint. To be 100 percent honest we faced the same problem many times when I first started using stencils — everyone does. We still do from time to time, nobody’s perfect.

Bleeding happens when the adhesive side of a stencil doesn’t bond enough with the surface you are painting. Thankfully, there are steps you can take to prevent, or minimize this.

Heat-Setting:
You need to warm up your stencil with a hair dryer or heat gun while and after you apply it. Not only does this help it stick to the surface you are painting, but it also makes it easier to mold and form. Heat setting your stencils ensures that they properly adhere to your shoe and will help get rid of air pockets and cracks that paint might creep into.

Extra Coats:
After you have applied your stencil, do 1-2 extra coats of whatever color you just covered up. By doing this, any paint that does bleed will be the same as the color that you’re covering. Once that bleeding is out of the way, any air pockets or cracks that paint could possibly bleed into will be sealed up.

Touch Ups:
Contrary to popular belief, both the most and least experienced customizers have to touch up their work. The only factors that change are time and the amount of touch ups needed. As you gain more experience, you generally won’t have as many to do. Even using the two tips we just mentioned, a little bleeding may still happen. That’s ok though, just touch it up and then you’re done!

Take Flight

You hear it everywhere about everything, but the best way to become great at using stencils is to practice. The more you work at it, the more it will become second nature. You’re sure to find different tricks along the way that work best with your workflow and style as well.

Hopefully you’ve found this how-to guide helpful. It’s kind of hard to cover every little thing about vinyl stencils and painting shoes while also keeping this digestible, so be sure to check out the other guides we release that go more into detail about some of the topics we touched on (e.g. paint bleeding).

We would love to see what you create after using this guide so be sure to follow us on Instagram and tag or DM us to show us your work. Feel free to email any questions you have and make sure to take a look at our ever-expanding selection of stencils for custom painted shoes!

HaveAir has been customizing sneakers since 2012 and our near-decade of experience is reflected in the high-quality, custom made sneakers and stencils for shoes that we offer.