Shoot Style「 シュートスタイル」
In case y’all haven’t figured it out, I like anime. Quite a bit. And one of my favorite animes so far is My Hero Academia, set in a future where superheroes and superpowers are commonplace. While my favorite character may be Bakugo…
…My favorite visual effect / design choice is Midoriya in his Shoot Style setup, a soccer-like, kick-based fighting style he uses in conjunction with leg armor and cleats to kick some serious butt.
I wanted to make my own setup, loosely inspired after Shoot Style. I’ve always been a fan of armor, and it seemed like a fun project. I was spending Thanksgiving break at school, so I used the time to do a quick two-day build.
I bought some motorcross leg armor on Amazon to be the base for this build.
Those close to me know I’m a big biker and inline skater, and that I’m pretty brainless - always sliding around, falling off, and getting cut up.
Friends and family are always giving me grief about all my leg scars too, so I used that as another excuse/justification to buy this 😆
Testing the Lipo/LED combination I planned to use
Replacing the battery JST plug with a more robust XT30
I needed some way to have the green light effect on my legs, so I managed to swing some free LEDs from a class. They were bright and perfect for my application.
Next, I had to modify the armor a bit. Inside the outer plastic shell, there was a layer of foam padding, and a final inner cloth sleeve.
I tore out all the foam to make space for my LED setup.
I also shaved off a decent amount of plastic away from the hinge areas, to increase my legs’ range of motion when armored up.
I had planned to use some mesh or translucent fabric to diffuse the light, but there wasn’t any readily available in the makerspace and I was short on time.
I considered using the black fabric from my underwear…
But it turned out that if I didn’t stick the LED bulb directly inside the armor vent, the light would bounce off the inner fabric sleeve and diffuse enough without me having to do anything. Nice!
Next, I basically wired 2 sets of LEDs in parallel, in parallel, and glued them close (but not inside) the vents.
I used thin-gauge solid core wire because it was a bit easier to bend and keep in place (it was also all the makerspace had at the time).
Here it is all powered on!
Near the hinge area, I routed the wires through some 3D-printed wire guides I made, so they couldn’t get caught. It’s in the previous picture too, but it might be hard to see in all the black.
Next, I needed a way to mount the battery. I didn’t want to go with a hard compartment, as that would have been bulky and annoying.
What I did was instead was take some strap material and sew a cute little battery pouch on the inside of the fabric sleeve!
The battery tucks right in. Cozy!
With the inserts snapped into place, you can barely even tell it’s been modified at all, save for one or two wires peeking out by the hinge.
Finally, I superglued any loose threads on the pouch…
And painted over any nicks from shipping/me working on it.
And the leg armor was complete!
This thing looks so sick! It throws out these cool, ghostly green shadows everywhere, especially indoors.
Best of all, they leave freaking light trails, just like in the show! (See below)
Tracing a nice light trail
Best anime fight of the year!
A longer video of me “kicking.” Please don’t laugh
Then, because I demonstrably lacked the footwork to pay homage to this little animation (S3 E23)…
I got my younger brother to do some sick breakdancing moves in my place!
The leg armor also lent itself to a really great aesthetic with my skates! My brother and I had a fun mini photoshoot.
Finally! The “Shoot Style” look wouldn’t be complete with the Midoriya’s signature red shoes, so I went on NikeID and got some custom Converse to match. I needed new shoes for powerlifting anyway, so I went for it
They ended up being pretty sick! (Plus Ultra)
I’d say it ended up looking pretty great!
Unfortunately, I destroyed my red Chucks in summer 2020, hiking through the Zion National Park.
Any sneakerheads out there — I’m sorry you had to see this.
I think that was all - thanks for reading!