Cobblers, shoe care, DIY

[BBSCCP]

yep - but i have had them vibramed.....the colour fades a bit and leaves a couple of water marks, but a bit a spit and polish brings them back to original glory.....
I've started to be less precious with my stuff....otherwise I only end up wearing it on medium temperature/guaranteed no rain days, which is never in London

totally agree with you on that. clothes are meant to be worn. Are you wax polishing them or just nourish them? horse leather is as fat as otoro sashimi so I am not afraid it might loose it´s dignity through snow and dirt. I am more afraid of the salt and grit which might damage the surface or even beneath..

[eton97]

eton they'll only look better after some stone, snow and spit.

Bestial - my point precisely

BBSCCP - at first i used nourishing cream, but after a while realised that black shoe cream/polish was actually made for black leather shoes - whether xxx or clarks

Its funny (and i am as guilty as the rest), but i have known how to polish a pair of leather shoes for many yrs, but when i got my first CCP, it all became a complex battle of do's and don't and what if's, and panic......you can't really go wrong using black shoe polish on black shoes....if you want them to look shiny and new...

[seatbelts]

Does anyone have recommendations for a cobbler in the Philadelphia area? I just bought a pair of Guidi back zips and have some F+B workboots I have never soled. Looking to get some quality service and not some cobbler who will brute force my shoes.

[gerry]

Can someone recommend a cobbler to resole tabi boots in the NYC area?

[bestial]

eton, regarding a discussion we had in the Augusta-thread. Went out saturday with my sneaks on to buy chips, first thing I (almost) did was too fall on the snow. DAMN they are more slippery then any other shoe I've worn! So now I have to take them to the cobbler anyway and put some new soles on them!

[eton97]

eton, regarding a discussion we had in the Augusta-thread. Went out saturday with my sneaks on to buy chips, first thing I (almost) did was too fall on the snow. DAMN they are more slippery then any other shoe I've worn! So now I have to take them to the cobbler anyway and put some new soles on them!

mine came out perfect with white vibram - i posted some pics in one of the threads a while ago for reference.....i felt it was definitely the right thing to do considering resoling these seemed impossible.

[jscl]

Does anyone have recommendations for a cobbler in the Philadelphia area? I just bought a pair of Guidi back zips and have some F+B workboots I have never soled. Looking to get some quality service and not some cobbler who will brute force my shoes.

try villa's shoe repair in rittenhouse. i took my jil handmade there to get vibramed and they came back fine. currently waiting to get my derbies back too.

[KM80]

I've heard it's possible to stretch tight fitting boots and I always assumed that to mean lengthwise, but I just got a pair of Cdiem s49m boots that seem fine lengthwise, but too narrow and tight across the top of my foot, just below the laces.

Can the width be stretched, or am I out of luck?

And are these boots made in different widths?

[Heirloom]

actually, the width and the kind of tightness you describe is the easiest thing to stretch. It's much harder to stretch the length, and is rarely done.

anything with few seams and real leather is easy to stretch. do not fret.

[KM80]

Good to hear, thanks!

I'll have to try to make it to the cobbler this weekend.

[miserableman]

Anyone know where else you can buy these clear shoe protectors?

http://stylezeitgeist.com/forums/showpost.php?p=139035&postcount=546

They are from the firm shoe repair in NYC. ^

Here we call them 'segs' and I can only find metal or black rubber ones. Could do with some clear ones like that for my light sneakers.

[anoldsole]

London

Another call for a UK cobbler!! I've been searching for a while but have come up empty handed. Sending my babies to random cobblers hoping they walk the walk as well as talk scares me. I've found people with respect and appreciation for a good shoe but that doesn't necessarily translate into good work in my experience. Alot of these shoes require an artistic eye to truly repair properly.

Anybody have a good technique to truly ascertain the skill of a cobbler?

[DmD]

protecting Avanti soles

Does anyone have experience protecting the soles of Avantindietro derbies? Since the soles are relatively delicate I wanted to use a sole protector (like Topy). Any thoughts?

[Raw]

Do soles like this need vibram added? I assume the heel doesn't since that is like a protective sole and comes with a spare. So just add vibram to the front?

[lowrey]

they don't need to, but you can if you want to. I asked my cobbler to remove the replacable layer and add a Vibram instead, makes the heel a bit softer to walk on and better for winter use.