Although these shoes are mostly out of stock in tan online with costco, I found my local costco had tons in store. So I decided to pick some up. The material used is faux nubuck, which is not always laser safe…So I did a Beilstein test on the material and confirmed there was no chlorine. Here are instructions for that if anyone is not familiar and want to test materials:
To get the shoes to fit in the glowforge I used my tie down mat:
My first run I used settings of 10 power, full speed, 270 LPI. It did not give great results and so I ran it 2 more times until I was happy with the it. I then switched to the next shoe and used settings of 25 power, full speed, 270 LPI and just 1 pass was enough to do the trick.
Thanks for this write up. The testing process for laser safety as well as the technique for engraving the footware is very helpful. You provide proof that the Glowforge can engrave many things that most of us would think impossible.