shoerepairer

for pink you want to go with hart88 suggestion I stock Saphir amongst others & some of these show creams are excellent & Tarrago has a good reputation for renovating. Meltonian as a brand no longer exists it has all been rebranded as Kiwi Select & is mostly in sliver grey tins. If your buying Meltonian your buying old stock.

Avoid! you hammer them onto the existing heel, but often this makes the original heel brake its moulding around its attaching pin & you lose both of them.

If you get a silicone shoe shine sponge (around 90p UK) you can run this up the teeth without risk of damaging the upper, the sponge helps with easy application! Lee

Do not mistake shoe odor with foot odor! Foot odor is because your dirty & shoe odor is because your shoes are! First question has to be what are we dealing with? The answer is bacteria living in the shoe that have become damp & haven't dried out sufficiently between wears (like damp walls in a house, you get a distinctive odor) So what do we do? get your self a pair of Cedar wood shoe trees, cedar is a great wood for absorbing moister from shoes. Secondly as suggested spray the insides with an antibacterial spray, like fly spray its great for killing the little creatures that are causing the smell! & thirdly let them dry! but avoid using a heat source to achieve this as this will dry out the upper & this in turn will make them deteriorate all to quickly! (this applies to leather or synthetics) if the inside feels damp or smells then let them breath another day & wear something else. Prevention is better than cure! always avoid wearing the same shoes day after day. it is always advisable to allow your footwear to breath between usage, leather is naturally more forgiving to constant wear than synthetic uppers because of it ability to absorb & breath but the same principles still apply. Don't forget to put them in a box marked Lee

By the way Occasionally you can pull up the linning & run an extra row of stitches around the boots, which if you do both doesn't catch the eye & makes them wearable.

Most linnings are put into the uppers before the soles & heels etc are put onto them. Its a case of reversing the process to either replace or repair them, it can be done but its VERY costly because its quite involved getting them appart (The manufacturers make them NOT to come appart!) & very time consuming! it can take 3 or 4 hours to do just one boot! coupled with postage it makes it beyond the value of most footwear. Because its so involved & time consuming few repairers can do the work & those that can, Charge premium prices. I can do this Mail order if you did want them done!

A razor might not be the best way, as this might just give you more work removing the remainding upper that you leave behind. it could be a few minutes in front of a fan heater might make an easier option depending on what the heel unit your trying to save is made out off. Have you got a picture? Lee

If they where mine (baring in mind its what I do for a living!) I'd smooth the damage with some special "stuff" I have, then spray them with plasic heel spray! But for DIY I'd do exactly what I said before, use a water based shoe dye there's no easy way, The only difference is you can always get black! Lee

it probably works to a degree, but surely as the water freezes it expands above & out of the shoe? the stretcher I have has attachements which can be placed in specific places, so if you feel the shoes are nipping a toe or bunion you can have just this area stretched. I don't think I'd want to do this to my nice new shoes!

Water based dye is the correct dye for plastic & the punch & dylon products will both dye black shoes white so are perfect for dying the red back to brown again. Its EXACTLY what you need. Lee

If these where black it would be a lot simpler! Here in the UK you can buy a water based dye that can be mixed to achieve different colours, the beauty of these is they will cover pretty much any surface & have an amount of flexibility when dry. The two most popular brands in the UK are made by Punch (Lady Esquire) & Dylon. Both are very similar as the two products are owned by the same parent company. You can mix them & put it in a jar for future touch ups. Sadly I'm not familiar with whats available in the USA but would advice to find a mixable water based shoe dye, Sure others will advice various paints but they won't be as good. Lee

Are you looking to re-paint the base sole or the side of the platforms? wasn't 100% sure from the post? If its the sides, do you know what the platform is now, is it covered with material or sprayed plastic? What colour is it? do you have a picture?

Or! take them back get the larger size & pack the toe with cotton wool to help raise the foot to stop them slipping on the back. For one days wear you might find it easier to make a pair smaller than trying to stretch them to make them bigger. If its a hot day & your on your feet all day & dancing then the chances are your feet will swell anyway. And congratulations enjoy your big day. Lee

I disagree with the advice! (sorry Thighbootguy:blinkbigeyes: ) If the heel has come lose its for a reason! either its worn or its fixings are at fault! why waist a few $ on glue & an advisory phone call to do a "fix" which might then cause complications for future repairs? Take them into a cobblers & get them re-heeled. it will probably cost about the same, but will be the correct repair for the job! you know it makes sense Lee

after having used it the third time there were real holes in the heels. that can´t be normal! what should I do? my shoe seller did not answer to my request.

I think the point of the topic has been missed here! It is not normal for these heels to break up after three wears (unless you are leaving 6 months between each?) the reason they have broken up is because the heels are plastic & that plastic looks to me to have perished. hence it breaking up.

The only reason they would have perished is through age or adverse storage conditions.

You have either owned these for some time, hence my bracketed comment previously or (most likely) they are old stock that the retailer may have brought some time ago (maybe part of a bulk buy) that have sat in-stock for to long!

In the UK shoe retail law states that shoes should be "fit for purpose" & " merchantable quality" which these are clearly not.

Not sure what the laws are in Belgium (as per your profile) but I would be looking at your countries retail laws. These SHOULD be replaced by the retailer.

Lee

It takes about 10 minutes to whip the old heels off and nail the new heels on...

Wow! if it can be done in 10 minutes, can you come & work for me!

I reckon on about 30 minutes per shoe to replace heel blocks! (although this always includes a new heel seat & lifting the soles or middles to check the shanks OK!)

And then theres always the 10 minutes it takes to serve the customer:w00t2:

warholchic2, your on a hiding to nowhere! you'll never be happy with them what ever you do! but I wish you luck!

I have just looked through the catalogue I have for heel blocks & there's nothing like the design you are trying to achieve so DIY is probably the only way. put up a link to a picture when they are done, I'd like to see them.

Welcome to the forum

Lee

You need to be very cautious when taking in just one seam. Boot legs are designed to fit the shape of the average calf & altering just one seam can in some cases make the boots twist. you sometimes need to alter the shape in 4 ¼'s otherwise they can be uncomfortable & end up looking bloody awful. I'm sure Achilles will advice appropriately. Lee

sounds very strange! As I said before, the majority of repairs buy zipping on a roll, I buy about 20 metres at a time, so you'd have to have very long legs for these not to be possible! I am also surprised Timpson could not help you either, any repairs they cannot do in branch they can send to a central workshop which just does this sort of work only. so not being able to get the zips done, just because of there length seams a bit odd to me. You can go into any haberdashery shop & buy zips of this length, you can even buy an open ended zip of 30" & have it cut to the correct 28" & have the bottom stitched into the boot, meaning the "open end" fittings are of no importance. if the only issue is the length then supply the zip. Although reading between the lines I suspect this isn't the main issue???? I would be astonished if Timpson especially didn't at least give you a price? Lee

then his offer to buy them off you was the correct offer to make. If you want them sorted out PM me & i'll send you my address, the only thing is with postage both ways it gets expensive! Its still a shame to hear such tails not good for my industry, as many of us try so hard to get our repairs "just right" Lee

In this instance I think your repairer was VERY far, he was willing to give you the value of the shoes without quibble. To replace the heel blocks on a pair of evans shoes would cost more than the shoes are probably worth, so his offer was more than he legally had to offer, because "technically" he could have offered you what the shoes where worth at the time of repair. Now given you had worn the heel out, which is why you was having them replaced they wouldn't be worth a lot at all! good customer service from this repairer I feel. Its should be possible to do an almost invisible repair on the existing heels anyway. without weakening the shoes in anyway so it might be worth giving them to a different repairer & seeing what they can do. Lee

How much should these cost to do? I have a couple pairs I'd LOVE to have metal tips on...

I appreciate your in the USA Stilettoscot, but in December 2008 the UK's repairs did a national survey of prices & Metal stilettos came out with an average price of £6.25 rubber came out at £6.05

Lee what do you think i should do ???

is it worth taking back ??

YES! doesn't make for safe walking! it might be worth going somewhere else, it depends on the policy of the "other" repairer!

If someone brought these into me, I'd sort them out with no charge as it would probably gain me a loyal customer.

Lee

This should not happen! the pin should be flush with the rest of the heel tip. Having fitted about 15 pairs this morning I know what I'm talking about! Lee

The heels are a bit scuffed up from the clamps and the material covering the heels is a bit wrinkly,

what a poor job, did you repair man do this damage? also the picture you posted up is SHOCKING! the heels haven't even been shaped! As long as your happy thats fine, but I'd be considering a new repairer!

a) a high street cobler would have such a zipper available to replace a full length zip?

Most High Street Cobblers buy zipping on a roll, then fit the ends & runners to fit the item. So any length is available. You will however be looking at a fair amount of labour time to replace two zips of this length & it will be fairly expensive to do.

have any of the teeth broken on the zip? or is the zip just bursting open as you pull up the zip runner?

Lee

My gosh! Where's BZ heels when you need him!

As a Relative new comer here, and a member that only frequents the "Shoe repair & Modification" forum, who's BZ heels ( I did a member search & couldn't find him) & why do we need him?

Lee