Holes in the soles

[igenlode]

Not only do my black dress shoes have holes in the leather of their soles, but the rubber of my sandal soles turns out to be disintegrating -- I keep finding little slivers of it on the floor :-(
And those are *not* resoleable. I bought them on holiday in Norfolk about fifteen years ago, where they were literally the only ones in the shop, and they turned out to be excellent walking sandals with shock-absorbing soles (despite not being billed as anything of the kind; they were actually quite cheap). But despite not having been worn all that much compared to my other shoes, they are now simply perishing from sheer old age.

I shall not find their like again :-(

Comments

[watervole]

I do hate it when shoes can't be resoled. Few shoe manufacturers even bother these days.
Some times my local cobbler can do something when there is no official sole available, but some shoes are a total lost cause.

[igenlode]

Sandals basically consist entirely *of* soles, with a few straps glued or sewn on top, so there's really not much that can be done when the sole itself starts falling off in chunks.

My other 'proper' shoes are all welted, so the soles can be replaced when I walk through them (which I do every couple of years or so). It's just a very expensive process -- more expensive than it would be to go down to Clark's and buy a new pair annually.

[watervole]

I have a pair of crepe soled sandals which can be resoled, and I may do so.

I got them for about a fiver in a charity shop, but they turned out to be a really good hand-made brand and they offer a resole and refurbish service for their own footwear.

Not cheap, but cheaper than buying a new pair from them.

[igenlode]

I've been thinking about ordering a pair of the SImple Way sandals. Despite their claims about "our famous replaceable insoles padded from heel to toe and flexible, shock absorbing polyurethane soles", I've never found them at all suitable as walking shoes -- the insoles get very hard very quickly, and in fact my Simple Way shoes are my preferred cycling wear, due to the fact that they transmit all the force of the pedal stroke directly! -- but their styles do cater for my very wide feet. And they are resoleable, since you just unstitch the uppers and sew on a replacement sole ordered through the post.

[watervole]

How easy are they to assemble? I notice you can get them as a kit or ready made. £18 difference on the sandals.

My husband needs re-solable sandals. the ones he used to buy can't be resoled any more.

I shall have to remember Simple Way for when his wear out...

[igenlode]

Pretty simple, but you need a decent amount of strength in your wrists and hands to pull the thread through and lock it tight. An old lady with shaky fingers wouldn't be able to do it, for example.
(The process always used to make me think of Tim Severin's account of stitching together the leather boat "Brendan", and the massive muscles tightening in the saddle-maker's forearms!)

And you have to be careful about not missing a hole as you stitch, which generally doesn't become apparent until you reach the end and discover that the two sides don't match up anymore...

The Simple Way leaflets claim that you will 'make your first shoe in an evening and your first pair in a weekend', which is reasonably accurate. I imagine sandals would be much quicker, since stitching on the apron and back collar is the trickiest and slowest bit.

There always used to be a massive price difference between kits and ready-made shoes (about £40 I think) -- I would never have dreamed of paying for the ready-made version, especially when the whole selling point was originally that they sent the materials out as flat-packed kits. I assume they discovered at some point that there was a considerable demand for pre-assembled shoes from customers who didn't want to go through the whole 'make it yourself' process!