Introduction 

In a time when the best way to deal with many consumer goods that break is to drop them in the trash, shoes can buck the trend. New shoes are expensive; old ones—assuming they were good quality to start with and are still in style—can’t be beat for comfort, and can often be made as good as new at a reasonable price. 

By fixing the shoes you are now wearing, you may be able to come out with a pair that looks about as good as new, gives you as much wear as you’d get from new shoes, and feels more comfortable than new shoes. 

Before having your shoes repaired, you’ll want to be sure that the additional wear you’ll get is worth the price. Assuming you still like the style, the questions are whether the rest of the shoe is in good condition and how much the repair will cost. A $200 pair of leather shoes that has been well cared for may live through several sets of soles and heels, and save you money in the process. You would repair an inexpensive pair of shoes, on the other hand, only if there is sentimental value. 

To decide whether a repair makes sense, you’ll want to talk with a shop about the cost, how well the job can be done, and how long the shoes are likely to last. For jobs other than simple resoling and reheeling, you’ll probably benefit by talking with a few shops. You may find several different ways to solve your problem—at substantially different costs. You also may get differing opinions as to how successfully the job can be done. 

Common Shoe Repair Jobs 

Heels 

Worn-down heels look bad; may put a strain on your ankles, legs, or back; and, if they’ve progressed far enough, may result in nail tips coming up and irritating your feet. 

Most often, replacement heels are rubber, but leather heels also are available, as are combination leather and rubber heels. The main reason for getting a leather or combination heel would be your preference for the appearance; some high-quality new shoes have these types of heels. But rubber is softer and quieter to walk on, and rubber replacement heels are less expensive by around $3 to $8. 

To extend the wear of any type of heel, you can have plastic taps put on the back. These typically cost only a few dollars. 

Lifts 

The piece that goes on the bottom of the heel of a high-heeled shoe is called a lift. Since the area of impact on such shoes is small, lifts wear out relatively quickly. Replacement lifts are usually nylon or similar synthetics, glued on or glued and nailed. For spike heels, the lift is attached to a dowel that goes up the length of the shaft of the heel. The dowel and lift together must be replaced. 

Soles 

Soles need to be replaced when holes appear, the old soles become soft at the points of greatest wear, or you begin to feel the ground. 

You can get full replacement soles or half soles. Full soles cost more (typically $10 to $14 extra) and require that the heel be replaced even if it is not yet worn down. Although there is a chance that a half sole will come loose, that’s unlikely. The main reason some people prefer full soles is appearance—if you spend a lot of time showing the bottoms of your feet. Half soles are almost always used on high-heeled shoes. 

Synthetics can be used for replacement soles, but most consumers who bother with resoling choose leather. Though leather is slightly more expensive, it is more flexible and it is porous, allowing your feet to breathe so that they don’t become too sweaty or too hot. Synthetics do have the advantage of being waterproof, however. 

There are several signs of quality in resoling jobs. First, while working on your shoe, the shop should shape it on a foot-sized form, or “last.” Otherwise, the shoe might lose as much as a full size in width. Second, if the layer of cork or felt filler between the inner sole and outer sole is not in good condition, the shop should replace it. Otherwise, the inside of the shoe will feel lumpy. Third, the shop should remove old stitches from the welt—the narrow strip of leather that runs around the top edge of the sole of many men’s shoes and to which the outer sole, inner sole, and upper are stitched. If old stitches are not removed, they not only look bad but also cause the needle to punch new or larger holes—thus weakening the welt—when the new sole is stitched on. Finally, the shop should shape and glue half soles so that there is not a crack where the new piece meets the old. 

Other Repairs 

Other jobs done by shoe repair shops include dyeing, patching cuts in uppers, cutting out toe holes, replacing straps, resecuring uppers to soles, adjusting fit, waterproofing, and making orthopedic shoes. (Some shops also do non-shoe work, such as repairing luggage, baseball mitts, leather garments, belts, and pocketbooks.) 

What the Shop Can Do for Your Comfort 

A shoe repair shop often can make shoes fit a little better. If your shoes are too tight, a shop may be able to stretch them. For example, a D width can generally be stretched to an EE width. A shop may also be able to add more space for toes, raise an instep, or stretch the calves on boots. 

For other comfort problems, the Shoe Service Institute of America suggests you consider— 

• Jimmys can effectively adjust the size of a shoe. These thin pieces of cork, felt, or foam are designed to go under the lining in the forepart of the shoe. If a size 7 1/2 is too loose and a size 7 is too tight, you can “jimmy” the size 7 1/2 to make it fit like a size 7 1/4. 
• Heel cushions can be placed under the lining to add comfort under the zone where the heel comes down. 
• Insoles, which come in a variety of styles and materials, can help in several ways. Flat insoles made of foam or leather add cushioning to the shoe and make loose-fitting shoes tighter. Contour insoles have an arch support and heel built in. They give extra support and hold the foot firmly in place so your foot doesn’t slide inside the shoe. 
• Halters, which are oval-shaped pads that go under the ball of the foot, shift the foot back in the shoe. They are especially useful with open-toed shoes to eliminate toe overhang. 
• Tongue pads, applied under the tongue of a shoe, tighten the shoe for someone with low insteps. They add thickness and cushioning to the shoe. 
• Heel grips, applied to the back of the shoe, help prevent the heel from sliding in and out of the shoe. They also push the foot forward in the shoe. 
• Arch supports provide support under the arch. They reduce foot fatigue by distributing the body’s weight evenly on the foot. 

Choosing a Shop 

What Do Other Customers Say? 

On our Ratings Tables, you’ll find how Bay Area shops were rated by surveyed consumers who had used them. (We surveyed CHECKBOOK and Consumer Reports subscribers.) In our survey, we asked customers to rate the shops “inferior,” “adequate,” or “superior” for “doing work properly,” “starting and completing work promptly,” “letting you know the cost early,” “advice on service options and costs,” and “overall performance.” Our Ratings Tables show the percent of each shop’s customers who rated it “superior” on each question (most ratings that were not “superior” were “adequate”). At the time of our last full, published article, you can see that 37 out of 106 shops were rated “superior” for “overall performance” by at least 90 percent of their surveyed customers while 10 were rated “superior” by fewer than 65 percent of their surveyed customers. (For more information on our customer survey and other research methods, click here.) 

How the Shop’s Work Looks to You 

Before risking your own shoes, you can ask to see some finished work. If you first discuss with the shop what your shoes need, how much it will cost, and whether the result will be worth the cost, it’s then quite natural to ask to see a couple of other pairs of shoes that have had similar work done on them. If yours is a common job, the shop is likely to have samples of other customers’ shoes. On resoling jobs, you can check for the points noted above regarding shaping and removal of old stitches. On many jobs, you can simply judge whether the trimming, stitching, dye-matching, and other features make the repaired shoes look good enough that you’d be happy wearing them. 

How Easy It Is to Communicate With the Repairperson 

Some shops don’t do their own repair work, or at least not on the premises. This is most often true of drycleaners, which may subcontract out the shoe repair work they take in or may simply serve as agents for the shop that does the work. Naturally, you won’t be able to get one-hour repair service from such a shop, but that’s not the only consideration. You’ll probably also find communication difficult. If you are thinking of having a strap added, for example, you’ll want to discuss with a repairperson what you want the strap to look like and whether it will be possible to stitch and dye the strap so that it seems to go with the shoe. Such a discussion isn’t possible if the repairperson is not on premises. 

Communication will also be difficult, of course, if the repairperson doesn’t speak your language or if the repairperson is simply abrupt and difficult to talk with. You can judge this for yourself. 

How Quickly the Work Will Be Done 

Some shops are set up to do work more quickly than others. If speed matters, get a promise before you drop off your shoes. Shops’ scores on the “promptness” question of our customer survey (shown on our Ratings Tables) tell you how well surveyed customers felt each shop met its time commitments. 

What It Will Cost 

Of course, you’ll want to check cost. For simple resoling or reheeling jobs, each shop will have a standard charge that is easy to check by phone. For a more unusual job, if the first shop you visit quotes a price that seems high, you’ll do well to take the shoe to other shops for estimates. Sometimes prices differ dramatically. For example, as you can see on Table 1, for resoling a pair of men’s dress shoes with full leather soles and rubber heels, we found prices in the area ranging from $45 to $125. 

On our Ratings Tables, for firms that were evaluated in our last full, published article, we report price index scores, which show how each shop’s prices compared to the average shop’s prices when our shoppers, without revealing their affiliation with CHECKBOOK, checked prices on eight common jobs. The price index scores are adjusted so that the average score is $100; so a score of $90, for instance, means that the shop’s prices were 10 percent below average. 

Dealing with a Shop 

Whatever shop you choose, you’ll want to follow a few basic steps in dealing with it— 

• Discuss the job with the repairperson so that he or she knows what level of quality you expect and you know what level the shop feels it can deliver. 
• Discuss the pros and cons of different quality levels of materials. Higher quality leather or rubber might more than double the life of the repair compared to lower grades and might add relatively little to your cost. But a lower grade may be sufficient, depending on how long you expect the shoes to last. 
• If you want anything other than a basic resoling or reheeling job, write out what you want. Then the shop will have a memory refresher when it gets to the job. If the shop sends work out, this is the best way to assure that your desires get communicated to the person who will actually do the work. 
• Get a repair ticket with the price for the job written on it. 
• Check the shoes carefully when you get them back. If possible, try them on in the shop. If the quality is not what you reasonably expected, insist that the shop make the job right or refund your money. 

How to Make Shoes Last 

You can make your shoes last longer and minimize the number of trips you have to make to the repair shop by doing the following— 

• Try not to wear the same pair of shoes day after day. They’ll benefit by having a chance for perspiration and other moisture to dry out completely. 
• Keep shoes in a dry area where they get fresh air. 
• Keep shoes on shoetrees. 
• After each wearing, clean the shoes with a soft, dry cloth. 
• If shoes get very wet, stuff them with newspaper and leave them to dry slowly. Don’t put them by a fire or other heat source. 
• Keep leather shoes lubricated and protected by polishing regularly, using a polish with a high wax content. Most liquid polishes have little or no wax and may cause shoes to dry out.