Repairing Shoes

Even good brands of sneakers and shoes can have their soles come loose when the original glue fails. This does not have to be fatal to the life of the shoe, but one of three things has to happen. It needs to be fixed, thrown away, or replaced. If the shoes happen to be among your favorites, a recent personal experience may simplify your decision to fix your own sneakers as I did, and with great results.

One of my Nike sports tennis shoes developed a loose sole, with half of it flapping with each step taken. Instead of trying to exchange them because they were a gift to me from and purchased from an unknown source, I decided to try to find an appropriate glue to re-attach the sole. Otherwise, the shoes were in great condition.

After searching on the Internet, I found information about a product called Shoe Goo. It seemed to be just what I needed, but I did not get around to ordering it through the Internet. I located a vendor for Shoe Goo near my home, the local Academy Sporting Goods store. With glue in hand, I was prepared to fix my sneakers.

The process is simple. Surfaces to be glued must be dry, and free from dirt. Shoe Goo should be used in well-ventilated areas due to strong odor and to avoid toxic fumes. After applying a generous amount of glue between the two surfaces, they need to be held together. I used twine wrapped tightly around the shoe after gluing to assure that a decent bond would be created.

While the glue should be dry within 24 hours, I decided to follow instructions that some surfaces might require up to 3 days for proper curing. When I wore the shoes several days later for a golf game, I was surprised to find that they were as good as new, maybe better. I haven't had any problems with them since.

That success led me to fix an old pair of Florsheim shoes that had a similar problem. The sole was partially loose because of wear to some stitches that had caused them to fail. Instead of taking them to a shoe repair service, I decided to reglue the sole. My efforts were rewarded handsomely, my old shoes are once again usable.

At a cost of less than $5.00 for a good sized tube of glue that is sufficient for many repair jobs, anything that is in my path that needs to be reglued had better beware. I love having a good glue that can be used in many ways, and this is about as good as it gets in the area of glues.