I've made a G-units tutorial this whole day, and would like modified to see the many possible mods that can be done with these shoes. I was a bit disappointed as to how little pictoral evidence can be shown on the many great aspects that these shoes can offer for the general buyer from what I've seen in other tutorials, thus the making of this tutorial for the creative in a way.
Of course, there will be a typical mod for G-units in this post, just to show a good foundation on how a tutorial should be.(Oh, and I was pretty wasted since last night on weed and hookah, so images may look a bit blurry.)
Anyway, less talk and more showing!
We have our typical all black Rastafarian tagged G-units. Definitely a beaut. Now let's cut her up! I immediately woke up at 11am today and immediately gathered my tools to begin my mods.
The typical toe flap cut. We all know the drill: cut the stitches off and open up those walls. We need to free the toe box so that we can do, well, the toe mod.
Open up one of the flaps you freed and slide your pair of scissors between the leather and the canvas you want on the G-units. Cut through the leather and you'll have a nice opening from there. I usually use the four holes on the leather as a guide on how much leather I want to cut off on the toe, but cut as much as needed so that the stitches don't come loose. Push down on the canvas and pull the leather upward so that you can take out the sticky glue that's in between.
Usually, I use a pair of scissors for the cuticle (that is, the blades on the scissors are curvish) to cut around and oust the leather portion of the toe-box. Of course, you can use a regular pair of scissors to do this job - I just like to be fancy.
(Note: the pair of scissors I have are a bit loose and worn at the screw that holds the two blades together, thus making for a more accurate and pressured cut so which I choose. Brand new cuticle scissors can barely cut through the leather, or so I tried.)
Now we have the inside on our shoe. I bet you're asking me: Waylon, why are you posting the insides of a pair of G-units? We know what it is! Ahh, yes, but there's more to the inside than what meets the eyes, my fellow viewers. Now, we all know how aesthetically awful it is to see the plastic heel supporter just jut out when modding the G-units. Most of us leave it on (like me for my red/white/black G-units) and as they leave it there, are too lazy to scrape off the foam, while others endless cut away at the inside leather in crude cuts to reach, and then cover, the plastic heel with the leftover leather that looks bent/wrinkled out of shape from aggressive cutting. The solution?
Just feel for the heel. It should be behind the last set of lined-up holes you see on the leather, and you can typically feel for it in the inner portion of yor shoe, around the foam cushions. Generally, I use the hole of the last line closest to the heel and sole, and just mark/score it with my x-acto knife for reference, aligning the stitching with the cut. Mind you, these are 8.5 all-black Rastafarian Goonitz, so every sized shoe might be different in terms of design for sizes or style. Therefore, make sure to do a proper cut in terms of the length you want to just cover that blasted plastic heel.
Like so. Then, you just cut away at the rest of the inside and take out the leather/foam of the shoe that's covering it.
Noice. Usually, people just leave it as it is from there. I say NO. We don't want ugly foam on our beautiful G-units! Example:
No offense, Joe!
We want to flaunt on how stylish they are as we pull off those big Add moves! More people seeing you playing in good-looking shoes = more morale in giving people a choice for shoe-buying, other than Rod Lavers. Want to clear out the foam?
Just a simple pair of splinter tweezers (with a round tip, not the pointy kind) that you can find at a general shop that sells make-up, and scotch tape. You're here to take out the leftover foam and the glue that it's sticking into here. Use the tweezers to gently scrape and pick off the glue and foam, and with the scotch tape just pick off whatever leftover fuzz and glob you come by from the surface or from your picking with tweezers. If your canvas is covered in a massacre of glue and foam, then an x-acto knife or a sharp razor will do the job fine if you're careful. Here, in this step, this is the point where minutes become hours, and day can turn into night. For this unusual craft I've mastered it - I can do a complete job within 30 minutes (if for both sides of the shoe it'll take me a little bit over an hour). Anyway, if you leave the glue and foam on, you'll have crap sticking to your shoes wherever you go out to play, so it's good to take your time here.
Anyway, we should be done here! Lace them up, use your choice of insole - whether stock, Spencos, or whatever else you have in mind - and there! We're good to go!
Definitely smooth modding skills, I have here. And yes, I wear snowmen pajama pants. You can blame my cutesy bratty cousin for that.
Now, onto the alternative mods. There're two things I can find here that are unique for the G-units: the tongue and the toe box. The Rod Laver shoes have a pretty thin enough tongue for enough comfort and style without any needed mods to even think about. Not for the G-units. The tongue is bulky, thick, and pretty relentless with the "pleather" type material we see on the outer portion of the tongue. Well, here's some mods you might want to consider if you fear that your Goonitz are bulky, or just uncomfortable with the added padding in your game. Also, some mods that might help support your style of play, of course.
Here, we have the three layers of tongue you might want to consider for your G-units. Actually, there is four, but the grey foam underneath the pleather outer is so close to the pleather that it should consider a layer with it (and the pleather is pretty thin to begin with). It's pretty much the bulk of the tongue's thickness. Anyway, we have our generic black pleather that's unmodded on the left, the cotton layer in it's white glory on the right (not sure about the black G-units if that layer is white there, but odds are that it is) and the last and bottom layer of the tongue shown with all the upper layers removed in the middle. So, really, it's an argument of a thick tongue, moderate to thin tongue with the pleather outer removed, or the very stretchy extremely thin tongue underneath.
Don't fret! All-black G-units get the comfort of a black color on their tongue underneath, so you if plan on doing this mod you can strip away the pleather outer and the thin white layer to get this stretchy good tongue left over.
Now, the reason for doing this mod? Mainly, for comfort. That's all it is to me. However, under the guidance of Joe Kulacz (and I bet Jay Rose is going to loooove this) you can get a humongous toe out of the G-units!!! Now people say that the Goonitz have a large enough toe, the toe is hefty but the walls are lacking, and the toebox is... small (only from one person did I see this
), but with this mod those guys can eat their words. 
All it takes is this mod, the modded toe, and lacing your shoes so that if you take a closer look... 
The toe is BIG. Can someone say TOE BOX? A huge amount of surface area that can only rivaled with Clima 1s, I must say. You can remove the leftover leather there and leave a smidget portion so that the stitching can be in place, or you can that take that part out and stitch the tongue and toe back yourself if you want (just don't say I didn't warn you.
). For me, I just cut off the eyelets and tie it up snugly as so (with the white layer left on the tongue):
Personally, I think the toe box is big as it is, and with the tongue mod it makes it even bigger. And, be forwarned, with the tongue mod in place as you try to lace it up with the walls up, the area above your toes or below your arch feels a bit loose for comfort with the lack of padding (well, that's because that area has become part of the toe box now!). However, if you're like me who just wants a snug fit with the tongue mod, the pic above is what I usually do for lacing sans the first eyelets. Or, try to lace up your shoes beginning at the second or third eyelet tightly. The world is your oyster.
edit: Now that I think about, this mod can be pretty significant for those daring to do the shandle shoe mod famous by Daryl Genz. I mean, the toe flaps seems pretty well-made to incorporate a toe further back than that of Lavers, so it could work for people wanting a higher level barefoot shred. Again, this is a warning.
Also, there's been some talk of G-units and the Brocka mod. Now, as I'm looking at the ankle support compared to regular Lavers as I wear them together, the arch on the G-units is a bit smaller than that of the Rod Lavers. That is to say there is more freedom to crank your ankle without having anything blocking it. And, judging on the material and design of the G-units, you have a cloth layer and the leather outer without any helping support for the Brockut as you stitch the area up afterwards (if you want to stitch it up, that is
). Of course, if you feel that you want more freedom in ankle crank by doing a Brocka mod, there is a way.
Just cut off the leather outer around the ankle support as much as possible, beyond the stitching. There, you have the flexible cloth left to bind snugly on your ankle, and flex it without much constriction to your ankle crank. There won't be much damage in terms of the shoes, but it does leave a pretty beat-up look to them. Doesn't look particularly as clean as a general Brocka mod you see on Lavers, but it's the next best thing.
I guess that's it for now. Hope you guys liked the tutorial I slaved over today.
sticky please
