hart88

It depends on the original construction, first... the biggest problem nowadays is how the insole/shank/heel seat is constructed...too involved to say it here....(I am always fixing bad/loose heels, and I see why they break, or come loose) the reconstructing isn't any different, as putting on a new heel block is virtually the same as fixing a loose heel.

that whole area has to be fixed, tightened, etc before renailing the heel...the same goes for putting on a new heel block.

I had lowered her heels previously over an inch, to see if that would help...she later decided to have me replace them.

see picture,

http://hartlandshoes.us/recover2.jpg

It mostly depends on if the shop wants to do the job.

Have you heard of insoles, or in this case, half insoles...the half insoles you put down inside the foot or the ball of the foot(shoe) and they help keep you from sliding down into the shoe, and that keeps your foot tighter in the shoe. You could also stick a tongue pad in the shoe (Stick under shoes laces area, slide far under enough that you can't see them) and that also makes the shoe tighter.

There is a new product company to the USA

URAD, imported from Italy..

you could go to www.urad.com and see what I am talking about

I was turned on to their Tenderly product by a Mortorcyle enthusiast who is a customer, who saw a story in the Motorcycle Consomer News of Jan 05-if I am remembering correctly. I have sold alot of it since especially to customers with leather coats, chaps, purses, and couchs...The Tenderly product is non greasy, and you can use it over polish, etc. When I refinish a Jacket and put the Tenderly on, the jacket feels new, and I can hardly hold onto it, it is so slippery and if I accidently drop it, it doesn't pick up ANY dust from the bench or floor.

I had see the regualr URAD 3-1 conditioners that my customers said "wow" when I refinished their Motorcycle jackets, Coach purses, etc.

Alot of the shoe repair shops sell the Urad, but not all sell the Tenderly yet.

Also, in the winter Urad freezes so we can't ship it at least in the Northern climates,

I second the motion about Tandys... You can buy as little as 10 each in some sizes of eyelets, and the setting tool can either be bought seperately or in a set of them...I suggest getting a set, because you will probably need the other sizes sometime. I suggest you observe how thick the leather is along with the linings,to determine how long the eyelet is, (the part that slides through the hole and is crimped by the machine to hold the eyelet in place) Also keep in mind if the eyelet hole is stretched, you probably have to get an eyelet that is wider to fit in the bigger hole, otherwise it will just pull out again. You may decide to have a shoe repair shop do it because they could patch the underside to make it more secure. Sometimes we can install a hidden eyelt, by just putting in a smaller eyelet with a patch underneath the original leather that the eyelet is crimped into, and sew the patch into an existing seam, and then the top leather doesn't show any repair.

I forsee this as a continuing problem? You should go and buy a couple of wood -split toe stretchers to have when you buy new shoes so you could prestretch them before you wear them. I have a lot of customers who have one foot larger/wider than the mate and they found out having a stretcher in the house helps, otherwise you will always have to go to the shop and leave them for a couple of days or more. To Stretch a pair of leather shoes/boots, it is best if they are leather. Also, if the lining inside is the same material, they will stretch the best...unlined boots/shoes will stretch the best. You need a wood stretcher, Shoe Stretch Liquid and Time. Don't wet the inside of the shoe if you are going to be wearing them for an extened bit of time. When you wet the outside of the shoe/boot make sure you rub the liquid in equally and thouroughly and completely...to avoid staining the leather. You could warm the shoe up with a hair dryer after you wet the shoe, but AVOID BURNING the leather, because that will RUIN the shoes. Just warm above the room temperature.

what shafted says is true, I don't know how many times I have had to tell the customer that fact. I tell them when there is usually a cloth lining underneath, the two products will stretch differently...they insist for me to try anything....and after they come back and see the wrinkling... they say, "I didn't know it would look that BAD!" :x after a couple of days, the wrinkles usually smooth out, but that is why I don't stretch vinyl boots....or shoes...some shoemakers have a heated stretcher...the idea is to heat the material and it will stay stretched to the new shape. Most of the heated stretchers cost alot of money...we would have to have a pair every day to make it pay for buying one.

Sorry, for some reason, I can't get the Instant Message or Private message to work for me, that is why I mentioned to you to e-mail or call me, Because of Kidney problems, I haven't been on the website for a couple of months... If you are still in the hunt for an answer, let me know by email or phone. Sorry for any inconvenience I have caused you! email hartlandshoes at yahoo dot com

I have had this product for about 6 Months. I wanted to test it first, before talking about it...It is made by Quabaug-Vibram-USA...It is actually one MM thick...It only comes in black, but they are supposed to showcase the beige color at our national shoe repair convention in August. You may be aware of the Topy from France, or the Mister Minute soling, but this is Thinner!

I guess one way to compare it, is if you have a spiral notebook, the cover of the book is the old thickness, and the pages are the new thickness.

I did try it out as a non slip soling, and it really doesn't work for snow. The best application is for those pointy toed shoes that have extremely thin soles. It wears good for how thin it is, otherwise.

Another caution I have is that if you are hard on your toes, like you wear them out in a couple of months, this material might peel back at the toe...and that could make you take an unexpected Trip!

http://hartlandshoes.us/VibramUltrathin2.JPG

Back when I was more Creative, I made this page for my website.

the only stretcher I don't show is the boot top stretcher...(because I didn't have one then...I got two of them from a guy who went out of buisiness) I will have to re-edit that page to show the shaft stretcher.

http://hartlandshoes.us/StretchingSeminar.jpg

I asked very nicely, and she sent me 3 pair of samples... they are very simply assembled... a piece of clear plastic that is sewn between a piece of cloth...the cloth is sewn in a way that it appears rounded(sewn inside out) the construction is good. I have them on my counter, and as soon as I get more answers, I might be able to sell them. I don't have a model foot to use but I do have a mule shoe that a customer donated to me...as soon as I get a plastic foot, I will take a picture of it.

I just wanted to update my warning about using liquid dye...and it is poisonous....YES!!! If you use most liquid dyes, you should always wait at least 24 hours (1 Day) before you wear them....If you have an open sore like a blister, etc...you should wait maybe even two days. I did run into a customer who used the Fiebings dye on his oxfords while he had an open sore on the top of his foot from breaking in the shoes, he got Blood Poisoning!!! I had even warned him, and he didn't wait, and he spent a couple of nights in the hospital!!!

to be honest, I haven't heard anything poisonous about the spray dyes, or the paint on dyes, but I would think a bit of caution is warranted.!!

Some shoes that are the real soft leather don't dye very well, because the leather is so stretchy, or has a unique grain in the leather.

I have used dye just to tint a shoe... I spray the shoe color dye on, and wipe it off, leaving a tint or stained overtone or hue on the prexisting color...I use this when It is difficult to match the shoe color...so when I use this method it doesn't exactly dye the shoe, but just tints it somewhat, enough to revitalize the color but not paint it...

I just double checked the link, and they also just emailed me back, so It Does Work, If you have trouble, try typing the link into your browser, and then see if it works,.

The idea is an covered gathered elastic that is either plain colored, or fancy with decorations....The idea is like a figure "8" and one of the loops of the figure "8" goes around the shoe (under the sole) and the other figure"8" goes around your ankle. they are going to send me a sample, so I will let my wife see them and see how they work....She has an inbetween size of foot, Wider foot, narrower heel, and some shoes slip...

Try the main site, and then click through the choices...

http://www.mymuletto.com/

I found this site to be interesting,,, a product to help hold shoes on, but in a decorative way... let me know if you think it works?

I have had alot of customers ask how to hold strap less shoes on,,, this looks like it might work, they have alot of different styles, etc.

http://www.mymuletto.com/store/index.php

leather shoes need a leather dye...to do the best job, the original finish needs to be stripped down or off. Mostly to get the factory shine, and other products they might have put on to protect the finish. Most professionals use a liquid dye that gets into the pores of the leather. Then they use a spray dye to finish, that usually makes a shiney finish...If you don't want a shiny finish, then use a creme polish to put over the liquid dye. There are retail spray dyes that you can buy to spray your own self, but then you have to mask areas that you don't want the dye to get on with an out door boot, or work boot, you can sometimes just use a wax polish over the top of the liquid dye and apply a couple of coats of polish while shining inbetween. Vinyl shoes need a vinyl dye Most Retail dyes for vinyl are sprays, but there are a few paint on brands. Suede dyes are not as available...and there are fewer suede dyes for retail purchase...And it is even difficult to find a shoe repair shop that would attempt suede dying. Here in the states, we have one place we can send them into for professional suede dying, and it is expensive....

leather shoes need a leather dye...to do the best job, the original finish needs to be stripped down or off. Mostly to get the factory shine, and other products they might have put on to protect the finish. Most professionals use a liquid dye that gets into the pores of the leather. Then they use a spray dye to finish, that usually makes a shiney finish...If you don't want a shiny finish, then use a creme polish to put over the liquid dye. There are retail spray dyes that you can buy to spray your own self, but then you have to mask areas that you don't want the dye to get on with an out door boot, or work boot, you can sometimes just use a wax polish over the top of the liquid dye and apply a couple of coats of polish while shining inbetween. Vinyl shoes need a vinyl dye Most Retail dyes for vinyl are sprays, but there are a few paint on brands. Suede dyes are not as available...and there are fewer suede dyes for retail purchase...And it is even difficult to find a shoe repair shop that would attempt suede dying. Here in the states, we have one place we can send them into for professional suede dying, and it is expensive....

Thank you, one cool thing about this business, is, you gotta keep t hinking. it is dissapointing at times to see cheap shoes and boots and alot of them are harder to repair than before.. the more expensive shoes seem to be easier to repair, due to better construction. I have a cheap pair of boots in the shop that the shank was broken, and it was a bear to take apart, because the inside construction is terrible. the leather wanted to tear like a postage stamp around the edges. I have to do alot more repairs than expected. (free of course!)

Why don't you email me,

hartlandshoes@yahoo.com

We can talk more there?

or I am in the shop tomorrow (sat) 9 AM to Noon)

We could discuss what to do.

I always tell people on the phone, the worst I can say is No.

Are you sure these are leather? the way the scratches look, it looks like vinyl to me, because vinyl creases , like tin metal, creases with flexing... If it were leather it would crack more. It also looks like a flex point, The only thing I might suggest, is if I were to do something, I would take the boot apart at thoses seams, sew a new piece of leather the shape of the vamp, (like making another line...wide enough to cover the damage, and then sew back together //\\, if that makes any sense?) I did that with a pair of snake skin cowboy boots, that were cracked right there in the front of the vamp ^ , I put a piece of leather that matched behind the vamp, like a cuff, because his instep was really high and stretching couldn't do the job.

Vinyl is similar to cloth, look at seam as good as you can, look inside, vinyl looks like cloth underneath. If the shoe or boot has a lining, sometimes that makes it more difficult. One thing I have never seen( I am quite certain) is a vinyl shoe with a leather lining. I have seen leather shoes with either vinyl or cloth as a lining. I hate seeing leather shoes with vinyl linings, because they can stretch differently, causing weird wrinkles in the leather. Unfortunately some shoes are leather with vinyl accents. The seam of vinyl looks more rough than leather... Leather really looks more like a skin. the vinyl looks more ragged. (I don't know another way to say it. Just spend some time examining both kinds, and you will eventually find out how to determine it.)

Scotty, another idea for the back piece is to glue a piece of leather in with the rough side out(against your heel). that will grab your heel better. You will have to rough up the smooth side enough so the glue will stick better. Don't use Super glue kinds for gluing in the back heel leather. Find a glue at the hardware store that is compatible for flexible objects. Barge Cement is a common over the counter glue... If you are still experimenting, use a household Rubber Cement, that way you can reposition the leather. Also some of those 3M spray adhesives that you can reposition items, but it isn't as heavy duty , unless you are going to reglue again. I just got an email from a company that makes heel adjustment pieces up to 2 inches! I will find out more, as soon as they send me a sample, they come in half inch increments Good luck

did you take another wedge sole and glue it to your shoe? (or how did you make it) a shoe fitters trick is to pull the insole (or socklining) up from the insole of your shoe, and find a cork or foam rubber "jimmie" that are usually found at shoe stores or shoe repair shops. (*don't glue it yet,*) just slide it under the socklining if you can, or just slide it into the shoe, and see if there is some resistance and the heel feels tighter, because it keeps your foot from sliding down into the shoe. (a thick piece of leather could also do the trick, but cork conforms to your foot better.) There are different thickness of the cork jimmies, also, so you might beg, borrow, or buy more than one pair....The reason we so don't glue it first, is the fact it is hard to dig that cork out again, if it doesn't work. One trick is to glue the cork jimmie to the insole while you have it out, then just slide the insole/socklining into the shoe. That way if it doesn't do the job, you can pull the cork jimmie off the insole better, ( or scrape it off easier) (another quick trick is a tongue pad just out of view under the front part of the shoe where shoe laces usually are.) about elastic straps, you can find Covered Gathered Elastic in many colors. I use that for quick fixes for the ladies who might have real small feet, and have to buy the wrong size larger to get the shoe they like. I can just sew it straight across like a tap dancers shoe, and many times it works, especially if the customer only needs the shoe for one occasion like a wedding, party, etc. If you need a buckle, then I have to do more fittings with the customer to to get the right angle, or length of elastic for the buckle, or length of strap. I always have the customer try the strap on before I punch the holes in the strap for the customer, and then finish the strapping. (measure twice, cut once!)

Scotty,

could you take a closer picture of the damage?

you could send directly to my email, and I could see it better.

It looks like it might not be leather, Dr Shoe mentioned a trick we use sometimes with both leather, or viny to disguise the defect, not to entirely cover it.

When I see the picture, I could tell you more.

Most of the shoe repair places who are in Malls, have high overhead to deal with, so they depend on repairs that they can do while customers are shopping...that means they don't want to do "junk" jobs, so that is one reason you may not get a good answer. (also some grumpy old men don't like seeing vinyl shoes, because it reminds them that the current shoe repair climate is not what they like to see.-vinyl shoes)

Gene@hartlandshoes.us

Thanks for the pictures, and the Links...I appreciate this very much, as I always try to know as much about these things as possible. You can never know too much. I see by the pictures, the ones that I had seen before, Were the rounded ones. You must have round heel tips, so that means you don't have to worry about fitting the piece to the heel tip, it is already round. Here in Minnesota, you could cause severe damage to yourself trying to wear them on our streets! LOL Gene

Dr Shoe, and Chris100575 Where do they get the metal tips?(the shoe repairer?) As I mentioned, I have only seen one pair that a lady brought in that Lived in Florida. She thought she got them from NY? "Now you know why I have people pre-pay...They can't remember where they even got their shoes, let alone repaired!! " I have had a few customers ask about the metal tips, and I have always had to say, maybe in NY or over in Europe, but I haven't had one person tell me where to get them.... My brain tells me that they wouldn't fit very nicely. Rubber tips you can trim to fit the heel, although I have see some shoe heel tips that the shoe repairer didn't trim to the shape of the heel (To me, what is worse, the customer didn't notice....)

we have a previous topic discussions on this heels question

You who have said you want noisier heels, and you say you have found them? WHERE?

in my 36 years of business, I have maybe seen 1 or two people who have had high heels with metal tips...

Most of the stiletto heels come with a pin lift or Dowel pin lift or Peg lift.

(different names I have heard.) there are different widths of the steel pin, and many sizes of rubber molded onto the pin. See Illustration below.

A lot of the stiletto heels have a steel metal tube that is in the core of the heel and is usually the length of the heel block.

The heels with the metal tube usually have a pin lift (a molded rubber compound that is molded onto a metal pin...) Some are hard plastic, some are a nylon rubber... They have to be somewhat hard, other wise you will ruin the heel immediately.

Some heels have a long dowel pin heel that is as long as the heel is tall. (from one inch to 4 inches) The reason for that is for strength. Those used to be easier to repair if you wore them down too far, all we have to do is pinch off some of the plastic and pull the metal spike out and level the plastic heel, fix some of the damage to the heel cover, and drive a new spike into the heel and trim to fit.

The shorter pins are different now, because some of the tubes are Aluminum, not steel. (to make them cheaper? or less weight?) To get around the difference in the aluminum not being as strong, they now insert a metal pin into the aluminum tube along with the pin lift. (most pin lifts are about a half inch long) So When you wear the lift off, and the metal stem (pin) is now worn into the tube, we pull out the heel pin, and level heel block.(lower) NOW, since there is that metal rod inside of the metal tube,We have less space to fit the pin lift... If you wear the heel too long, and we have to level the heel, There is Less Space to insert the new pin lift.... (unless we can pull the tube out, remove the metal rod, and reinsert the tube) Sometimes when we do this, the heel is shorter, and if there is a shape to the heel,(cone, bell bottom, etc) we are putting on a different size rubber heel. Then we trim the rubber heel to fit the heel block...

Getting back to the steel heels.....How many sizes of plastic,(wood,etc) are there? To have metal heels made for each size would be expensive. We definately couldn't trim them to fit!

IMAGINE IF WE HAVE TO HAVE STEEL HEELS IN ALL THESE SIZES? they would be expensive (to have all the different pin sizes, and all the heel sizes!)

The only advantage in my mind is that steel is a neutral color and we don't have the decision whether or not to use a black or brown heel tip

http://hartlandshoes.us/DowelsExample.jpg

Picture of many kinds of spike (pin, peg, dowel-pin) heels.