How to Repair the Sole of a Dress Shoe

When it comes to dress shoes, no one wants to see them falling apart after a long day at work or a night on the dance floor. Regardless of the price you might have paid for them, even some ultra-expensive dress shoes can come apart after a bit of constant use.

However, instead of purchasing a new pair, or paying a hefty price to the shoemaker for repairing them, it might come in handy if you could just perform the shoe sole repair yourself. Especially if it's the rubber sole which has come apart, you can do it – even without prior knowledge – in a very short amount of time.

It might only be a temporary shoe repair, but when you need to wear the same pair of dress shoes for an office meeting or other important function again in the near future, this DIY shoe repair can come in handy.

Want to know HOW? Have a look at the following guide.

How to Repair Shoes

For repairing the sole of a dress shoe, all you need is some glue and a broken sole. When purchasing glue for this purpose, you should consider buying shoe sole glue for achieving the best possible adhesion results. Even though it might be a bit more expensive as compared to other types of glue, it's worth the money to do this dress shoe repair properly.

Once you’ve purchased a suitable shoe glue, open it up by piercing a hole through its bottle with the help of a pin (often built into the tube's cap) or nail. Make sure that you’ve created a large enough hole to allow this viscous material to come out without any hindrance.

Afterward, apply the glue over the broken sole. You should only glue that part of the sole which is coming apart from the shoe’s bottom. However, if the entire sole has come apart, you should apply a considerable quantity of glue all over the shoe sole.

Make sure that the shoes rubber sole is completely covered with glue in order to make solid contact with the bottom of the shoe. However, if you aren’t sure about the perfect quantity of glue that should be applied, go online to the shoe’s manufacturer site to see what they recommend.

Now hold the sole and shoe together for a considerable duration of time. Keep them in this position as long as the glue isn’t fully set. At this point, you should make sure that your fingers stay away from the glued part or otherwise, it could negatively affect the outcome of this particular method, and you might have to do it all over again.

After the sole is sealed correctly (usual glue curing time is 24 hrs.), you can start wearing these shoes without any issues. However, if there is still some part of the sole which lacks proper contact with the shoe’s bottom, you'll need to add more glue to areas that were missed.

Apart from using this re-glue shoe soles repair technique on dress shoes, you can also apply it to other types of footwear. Even though it may only be a temporary fix, it's still much better than having to purchase a new pair of dress shoes.

Useful Tips

• You should apply this method only on rubber soles.
• If you own a pair of dress shoes that are manufactured with a leather outsole, it might be more beneficial to consult a shoe cobbler for repairs.

Conclusion

There are very few things which are more frustrating than having to deal with a broken pair of dress shoes. Especially at the start of the day, when you’re preparing for the office, a broken sole can ruin your mood. At that time, there's no way you can visit your nearby retail store or a professional shoe cobbler to get it fixed.

However, this is where the above shoe repair tips come in handy. When it requires nothing more than shoe glue, which can be found in most chain department stores, the fact that it takes no more than 10 minutes to repair and 24 hrs to cure makes it a cheap shoe repair for any favorite pair of shoes.

So next time your shoe soles come apart, try applying the above shoe repair tips. Apart from saving you time from having to shop for new shoes and maybe spending money that you weren't planning on spending, it will feel good to fix your shoes with your own hands.