Ruined?

[Puma]

Over the past month or so, more rain has come down than I care to remember! Anyway, to get to the point, I've been out and about wearing a pair if knee high 3" block heeled boots, and they've taken a soaking. One of the boots has developed a slight movement of the heel, well just infront of the heel actually. The heel is fastened to the sole very well, but the movement would indicate that the 'last' (I think that's what they call it) which appears to be made of sandwiched cardboard type stuff has become to de-laminate. Is it possible to have this repaired? If so, is it a job I can do myself? Or like I suspect, are they ruined?

[Dr. Shoe]

Firstly, it is not a last. That is a foot-shaped block of plastic over which the leather is shaped to form the shape of the shoe. This is then removed and retained by the factory for future use. The component to which you refer is called the insole board. I'm afraid that there is little you can do unless you have the fore-mentioned lasts, because the only remedy is to totally rebuild the boot from scratch with a new insole board. This would be very costly and probably not worth it.

[Firefox]

It's quite likely the shank (metal stiffener) has delaminated from the insole board or the insoleboard has delaminated around the shank. Sometimes the shank is sandwiched between two paperboards which ceented with glue. When they become soggy the glue loses its effect or the paperboard tears. This is a very difficult repair to effect. One thing you could do would be to infill the space between the heel and the instep with elastic type car body filler screw down through the insole into the filler to hold it together and screw through the heel at right angles to into the filler. Fill and smooth all the holes and paint everything black. Hey presto, a pair of wedge heel boots.

[hart88]

You didn't mention if the boot has a zipper If you have a zipper, it may be fixed rather easily. ( if it doesn't you will have a lot harder time to get into the boot) But keep in mind if you don't do something soon, the shank could break or the heel will come loose also. To fix a loose shank piece (the insole board that Dr Shoe named it) is usually 3 pieces. You have the insole which commonly is paper these days, the metal shank, and the insole board which is also commonly paper. (Only the most expensive boots have leather insoles) Some times you may have vinyl padding on top with a leather insole, socklining, or vinyl insole on top or just a heel pad. (also some inexpensive boots have a piece of tin nailed down to try to reinforce the heel nails-like a washer with a bolt) You have to pull back the socklining , examine the sole board. It usually only goes from the back of the heel to the back of the ball of the foot (arch) If you can get a screwdriver, or any prying instrument to loosen the insole board enough to get some room so you can apply glue to the loose area. It takes some nimbleness to not get glue over everything... (Believe it or not, sometimes I have to dip my fingers in the glue, and curl my fingers inward and slide my hand into the boot, and then use my fingers to apply the glue into the open area- I then have to use glue thinner to clean off my fingers) An all purpose contact cement is the best. Make sure you apply an even coat of glue to both surfaces of the under sole board and upper sole board even the shank, then let the glue dry to the touch. Now press together, and let set for a while and recheck to make sure the glue is dry. Then reglue the top socklining or heel pad down if you are sure the glued shank area is okay. In the shoe repair business, we also hand tack the shank and arch area to make it more secure. We call that Bracing. Go for it, it can be fun!