I have a pair of shoes that still look great outside but are worn out inside such that they cause a bit of discomfort. They are men shoes that one usually wears in the office. They have about 1cm thick sole made of some sort of solid rubber thing (not sure of what it is sorry) which got thin and worn out at the front mostly and at the heel a bit. They were also worn out at the bottom outside so I have got them repaired (they glued a new sole at the bottom and reconstructed the heel). At that time I could not do that myself. After that the surface inside became even more uneven. Complained to the guys and they tried to fix it by applying a thin piece of leathet on top of the uneven surface which did not really fix it Tried some soft insoles but did not work well. Anything I can do myself at home to make the surface inside even and nice and natural? Is it the same technique one would apply to make better arch support for a high arch foot?
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2In what manner are your inner shoes worn out? Torn or missing lining? Arch support or insoles no longer resilient? Structural support failing? I think the nature of the wear will vary the answers considerably.– Robert CartainoCommented Sep 8, 2016 at 14:15
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I can't help but wonder why you can't just buy some insoles to put inside.– KlikCommented Sep 10, 2016 at 7:06
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1The surface is very uneven and insoles end up uneven as well. I am looking for a technique to make it even again.– Jay RandomCommented Sep 13, 2016 at 8:21
6 Answers
I had the same problem and bought hard insoles. They do not look very comfortable, but they actually are! Because they are harder than the soft leather insoles you might not notice the unevenness. If they are still uneven, you might be able to put a piece of leather between the hard insole and the shoe, but I doubt that will be necessary.
Purchase an item called "Gellers" they are made by Dr.Scholls. They conform only to where your feet need them to.
I would suggest you do this:
- Arrange a waste sponge from the upholstery shop that is having your legs size.
- Take your shoes and shape this sponge so that it fits inside the shoes
This is happening to me almost every time. Almost every shoe I bought in last decade had sole (to be more precise - heel) made with hollow compartments. Not only does this kind of sole deform and break up from inside, but it also wears unevenly and quickly on the bottom side and will open up holes after some time. The best solution I found so far is to fill those hollow compartments with silicone. This isn't ideal, because silicone is softer than the material soles are made of, so a good insole is needed, with some rigidity in the heel area (again, I resort to some DIY here). The main advantages of silicone is that it creates water-tight seal, it's not as toxic as some glues and it's cheap.
Some tips: wear gloves, silicone is not easy to wash off and work in well ventilated area. Acid based silicone, which is the most common, releases acetic acid which is somewhat irritating. Silicone will probably need 24-48 to cure. I'm using regular "sanitary" silicone.
This happened to me today, tried on a pair of boots I hadn’t worn in a while and one felt weird like my foot was going to the side, I pulled out the factory insole and there was a big hollow space on the inner part, I had no idea what happened, we don’t have any critters lol. I filled in the hollow areas with a hot glue gun, 2 whole sticks worth, then added some extra insoles for support, just in case.
Try spreading out cotton balls in the uneven places.
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That would probably make things messy by sticking to his socks and not staying in place. Maybe by adding a flat material on top to keep the cotton balls in place would help. Still, I'm not sure how durable that would be.– KlikCommented Sep 10, 2016 at 22:40