News — Accessories

Angelus paints can be used for much more than custom sneakers. From custom clothing to furniture, you can use your skills to create a variety of personalized items and accessories that match your personal style.

To demonstrate this, Rick from @savethepanduhs created a custom leather jack tutorial, walking you through how to prep, paint, and finish a leather jacket. When done correctly, you'll be able to wear your leather jacket in any weather without worrying about your design chipping, peeling, or cracking.

Follow along to learn how to see for yourself how easy it is to customize a leather jacket and other leather accessories with Angelus paints.

How to Paint a Leather Jacket

To get started, you'll just need a few basic materials:

• Angelus Acrylic Leather Paint
• Paint Markers
• Angelus Leather Preparer and Deglazer
• Angelus Paint Brush Set
• Angelus Micro Detail Brush Set
• Angelus High Gloss Acrylic Finisher

After getting your materials together, follow these steps to create your own custom leather clothing.

1. Prepping the Leather

First, just like prepping leather shoes, you need to prep the jacket with either Angelus Leather Preparer and Deglazer or acetone. This will remove the jacket's factory finish to create a clean surface for the paint to adhere to.

Soak a cotton pad with a small amount of the Deglazer, and wipe down the entire area of the jacket that you plan to paint.

2. Using Paint Markers

Before painting the jacket, you can use Angelus paint markers to sketch your design. Free-handing is always an option, but outlining with a painting marker will help avoid mistakes once you begin painting.

Angelus paint markers come empty, so to fill them, use a 1:1 mixture of paint and Angelus 2-Thin to make sure the paint is able to flow through the marker and fully-saturate the tip without clumping. We recommend using white paint or another light color for the outline as darker colors will be difficult to paint over.

3. Painting the Jacket

Once your jacket is prepped and the design is outlined, you can start painting your custom design.

Be sure to use several thin, even coats and allow each coat to completely dry before applying the next. Applying thick layers will make the paint more likely to crack or chip when you wear the jacket. If you don't want to wait for each coat to dry, you can use a heat gun to speed up the process.

This is your chance to get creative and choose the colors that you think best fit your design, but if you want to recreate the same jacket from the tutorial, make sure to check out the full video to see the colors Rick selected for his jacket.

4. Applying Angelus Paint

Once your design is complete and the paint is completely dry, the next and final step is to apply Angelus Acrylic Finisher to seal in the paint, create a custom finish, and protect the paint from minor scratches and scrapes.

Finishers are optional, but they are a great way to add an additional layer of protection and personal style to your custom jacket.

Use a paintbrush or airbrush to apply the finisher on the painted area of the jacket. For this project, Rick applied a high gloss finisher to the car and jacket to add contrast to the design.

Leave the finisher to dry, and once it is, your jacket is ready to go. You can wear it as normal without worrying about damaging your custom paint job.

More Custom Tutorials

If you want to check out more custom tutorials like this one, make sure to subscribe to the Angelus YouTube channel to learn tips and tricks from experienced sneaker artists.

Don't forget to also follow Angelus on Instagram and check out our online store to grab the tools you need to recreate this custom leather jacket!

Still looking around for some last-minute Christmas gifts?

Angelus has everything you need to create custom sneakers, bags, purses, furniture, clothing, and accessories.

Check out this list for some great, affordable gift ideas for the artists in your life.

Angelus Gift Guide 2020

Time's running out to buy Christmas gifts. If you're still looking for ideas, here are five great gifts under $35 that are perfect for anyone interested in creating their own custom clothing.

1. 12 Color Paint Kit

The 12 Color Assortment Kit is a great choice for any customs artist. The kit features a display case and 12 colors of your choosing. From customizing to restoration, our 12 Color Assortment Kit is your best choice. 

All Angelus paints are safe to use on leather, canvas, mesh, and other common shoe materials.

2. Starter Kit

The Angelus Starter Kit is perfect for anyone new to customizing or restoring. It includes everything you need to get started, including:

• 3 Standard Paints of your choice
• 1 Acrylic Finisher of your choice 
• 1 Easy Cleaner 8 oz.
• 1 Leather Preparer & Deglazer (If international, Deglazer cannot be shipped and you will be refunded for this item.)
• 1 Premium Sneaker Cleaning Brush
• 1 Angelus Paint Brush Set

These items are everything you need to paint, clean, and maintain custom sneakers.

3. Easy Cleaner Kit

The Angelus Easy Cleaner Kit makes a great gift or stocking stuffer for anyone looking to keep their shoes nice and clean. It includes all the tools you need to keep your sneakers clean and protect your custom paint job.

The kit includes Angelus Easy Cleaner, a premium cleaning brush, and a microfiber towel.

4. Micro Detail Paintbrush Set

This micro detail paintbrush set includes five premium brushes designed specifically for use with Angelus acrylic leather paints.

Included in this set:

• 1x Angelus Micro Detail Paint Brush: 0 Round
• 1x Angelus Micro Detail Paint Brush: 0 Angular
• 1x Angelus Micro Detail Paint Brush: 0 Shader
• 1x Angelus Micro Detail Paint Brush: 0 Spotter
• 1x Angelus Micro Detail Paint Brush: 0 Filbert

These brushes are perfect for fine detail work on any custom project.

5. Angelus Gift Card

If all else fails, you can never go wrong with a gift card!

Angelus gift cards are delivered by email and contain instructions to redeem them at checkout. Our gift cards have no additional processing fees Gift cards are available for $10, $20, $50, $75, and $100

More Gift Ideas

If you didn't find what you need on this list, check out our website for more gift ideas under $35.

You can also check us out on Instagram to see what you can accomplish with the gifts on this list.

Creating custom leather accessories is similar to painting custom shoes and its a great way to create truly one of a kind pieces.

To show you how to use your painting skills on leather bags, Eric from @servicedby_e came through to put together a tutorial on how to create a custom Louis Vuitton leather bag.

How to Paint a Leather Bag

Painting a leather bag is more or less the same as painting leather shoes. To get started, you only need a couple of materials:

• Tape
• Preparer & Deglazer
• Paint & Brushes
• Heat gun
• Finisher

Once you have materials together, just follow a few steps to paint your custom bag.

Step 1: Tape the Edges

Start by taping off the edges to protect the parts of the bag that you don't want to get any paint on.

You can remove the tape after painting the main portion of the bag to add extra details and line work.

Step 2: Apply Preparer & Deglazer

Angelus Preparer and Deglazer is essential for removing the bag's factory finish, which will make it easier for the paint to adhere to the bag.

Use a q-tip to carefully scrub off the paint and finish on the areas that you want to paint. If you're following along with this project, you only need to use it to wipe off the gold finish on the LV branding.

Step 3: Painting the Bag

For this project, Eric painted a gradient from brown to purple along the front of the bag, but you can use whatever colors you want.

Use a detail brush to carefully paint light, even layers. If the paint gets outside of the lines at all, you can use more Deglazer to clean it up.

Step 4: Drying

Once the first layer of paint is down, you can use a heat gun to speed up the drying process.

After the first layer is dry, add more layers as necessary, making sure to wait until each layer is completely dry before moving on to the next.

Step 5: Painting the Strap

After the front of the bag is finished, paint the same pattern on the shoulder strap using the same materials and techniques as before.

Step 5: Satin Finisher

After all of the paint is completely dry, you can finish off the bag with satin acrylic finisher to protect the paint from minor scratches and add a satin finish.

Use a paintbrush to apply a layer of the finisher over the bag, and once the finisher is completely dry, you can use the bag as normal.

Make sure to check out the full tutorial on YouTube for a more detailed walkthrough, and stop by our online store to grab the materials you need to recreate this custom bag.

Creating your own custom projects is the best way to get your hands on the sneakers and accessories that match your personal style. Whether you're after an AF1 colorway that doesn't exist, or you have a dream designer collab in mind, making it yourself is often the only way to get it done.

With that in mind, check out some of our favorite customs from this month below to get some inspiration for your next big project.

While a lot of artists stick to sneakers, you can customize almost anything as long as it's made up of the right materials.

Sponsored artist @swellguycustoms stopped by earlier this month to create a tutorial showcasing how you can use Angelus paints to customize a faux leather barstool, and you can apply these techniques to pretty much any faux leather product.

Check out the full tutorial to see the tools and techniques you can use to recreate this unique project.

(source: @truebluecustoms)

Miss out on the Jordan 1 x Dior collaboration that dropped earlier this year?

This was one of the biggest collabs in recent history, but it was almost impossible to get your hands on. Fortunately, though, you can always recreate it for yourself.

Sponsored artist @truebluecustoms designed these custom cleats, featuring many of the same details from the original Jordan x Dior collab, including Dior-branded Swooshes, Air Dior branding, and a clean grey and white colorway.

(source: @danielcordas)

With roles like the Black Panther and Jackie Robinson, Chadwick Boseman was a brilliant artist who inspired millions of people around the world.

To pay tribute to the late actor, sponsored artist @danielcordas designed these custom Balenciaga Runners, featuring an incredible illustration of one Chadwick Boseman's most iconic characters -- the Black Panther.

(source: @lucha_loafers)

October is right around the corner, meaning now is a great time to start getting your Halloween customs ready.

Sponsored artist @lucha_loafers painted these custom Vans Slip-Ons, featuring some of the most recognizable villains of all time, from Hannibal Lecter to Freddy Krueger.

(source: @jaygotkustoms)

The Cactus Jack x McDonald's crossover is one of the weirder collabs we've seen yet, but that didn't stop the hype beasts from swarming McDonald's for a regular cheeseburger.

One good thing to come from this collab is this pair of custom Air Force 1s designed by @jaygotkustoms. These customs feature McDonald's x Travis Scott branding and a clean yellow, white, and brown color scheme to match the theme.

To see more great customs like this, make sure to follow Angelus on Instagram, and grab the materials you need for your next project from our online store.

There are plenty of effective sneaker cleaners out there. But how much of a difference does the cleaner actually make?

While it's important to have an effective cleaner that won't damage your shoe, in some cases, the real difference maker is the brush.

That's why we had @sneakerheadinthebay stop by to create a video explaining how to tackle a dirty pair of sneakers and which type of brush is best for the job. Read below to learn the key points, and make sure to check out the full video on our YouTube channel.

Types of Brushes

There are a few different types of brushes that should each be used for different purposes and materials.

First, is the horsehair brush. Horsehair brushes have very soft bristles that are used mostly for brushing off any excess dirt or dust from your shoes before you start cleaning.

If your shoes are super dirty or muddy, hitting them with the horsehair brush first will make cleaning them a lot easier.

The all-purpose brush is perfect for most uses and is the best way to clean your sneakers while using Angelus Easy Cleaner.

With bristles soft enough for suede but strong enough to scrub off dirt and grime, the all-purpose brush can be used on nearly any material without damaging it.

The nylon bristle brush, which comes in our Nubuck & Suede Set, has tough bristles that are used to reset the nap in your suede after being cleaned and dried.

The Angelus Nubuck & Suede Set also removes most soil and spots on suede and nubuck. 

Lastly, we have the brush that comes with our All-Purpose Foam Cleaner.

This brush features very hard bristles that are perfect for outsoles and midsoles. If you're having trouble getting rid of dirt and grime no matter how much scrubbing you do, this cleaner and brush combo is your best bet.

More Cleaning Essentials

Finding the right brush is essential for cleaning your sneakers correctly, but to make sure they stay in good shape, you might want to grab a few of these other sneaker care essentials:

• Easy Cleaner: a premium shoe cleaner that's safe for all materials
• Mink Oil: a premium conditioner that prevents stains and extends the life of your shoes
• Foaming Cleaner: a foaming cleaner that uses a pump for easy application and is perfect for most materials
• Sole Bright: a solution that completely reverses oxidation to bring your soles back to life
• Deoderizer: a scent-free formula that completely eliminates all odors from your shoes

These basic essentials will make sure you have everything you need to keep your sneakers in factory condition.

For more product drops, tips, and customs, make sure to follow Angelus on Instagram, and don't forget to check out our website to grab the materials you need to take care of your customs.