If you make or wear a lot of costumes, you may have a shoe storage problem. Even if you stick to cosplaying characters within the same game or comic book, footwear differs from outfit to outfit. The purple boots I have for my Amethyst costume don’t really go with anything else — well, not as far as cosplay is concerned. Besides the practical problems of having tons of shoes for cosplay, it can get expensive. It doesn’t make sense to drop tons of money on shoes you’ll only wear a few times. Svetlana Quindt, also known as Kamui Cosplay, has some tips to help you pare down your shoe collection.

She recently posted on Facebook that she only has two pairs of cosplay shoes. Now, Quindt is a prolific cosplayer with several different ensembles in her portfolio. Some of her costumes have a similar look, but I wouldn’t have guessed she’d wear the same shoes with them. She has a set of hiking shoes (they still have heels) and a pair of “pretty” shoes with higher heels. She simply changes the tops or covers them to match whatever she’s wearing:

“…as you can see I always just change the top. Sometimes I attach some armor pieces, sometimes I’ll use a boot cover. That way I’m able to use the same pair of shoes for different costumes and safe a lot of space in my suitcase! In addition there is no need to buy a new pair for every single cosplay! Try it out.”

Follow Quindt on Facebook for more tips and check out her selection of cosplay crafting books.