Vibram Rubber Half Soles Replacement

This will extend the life of your favorite pair of shoes or boots. Step 1 - Sand the area where you will apply the glue and sole replacement. Step 2 - Cut roughly the shape of the rubber with scissor or razor blade. It does not need to be perfect. Step 3 - Apply glue on the rubber and sole. Wait 15 minutes until it gets tacky. Place the rubber on the sole and press it firmly. Use lots of rubber band to hold it together. I used springs clamps and held it at least 24 hours. Step 4 - Use Dremel drill sander to smooth out the edges. I included 3 photos to illustrate how I did it.

These are sole protectors, same ones professional cobblers install. To install them you must sand the soles down to bare leather, apply appropriate glue (barge original recommended) and press them VERY WELL against the soles of the shoes for 24 hours, then trim off the excess. It is what it is, don’t buy them and say they’re too big or they’re not adhesive. It’s DIY and if you prepare ahead of time and do a careful job you can get great results. Cobblers charge 50 or 75 bucks to do this. I think I got good results for my first try. The trimming could have been better for sure but I’m happy. I trimmed with a regular razor blade but in the future I’ll use a hooked carpet blade. IN MY OPINION for best results: tape off the arch of the shoe, and the sides of the soles with masking tape so only the glueable surface is exposed. Sand the soles down to bare leather. Sand the glue side of the protectors, particularly the ramp section which comes slick. Trim the protectors so they hang a half inch or so off the edge of the soles. Apply barge with a brush to both the sole and the protector, wait 20 minutes for the glue to dry to tacky. Carefully apply and press all the way to the edges. Stuff the inside of the shoes tight and slide an old (disposable) sock over the front of the shoe. Use duct tape to wrap the whole thing, putting a lot of pull on the edges to force the edges of the protectors up to the edges of the sole. If the soles are flat you may put another sock or something squishy on the sole itself to put even pressure across it. Mine were rounded from wearing the boots already. The protectors are flat hard rubber so it will take a good amount of pressure to mold them smoothly to rounded soles, but as you can see on my boots, it’s possible. WWait 24 hours before unwrapping your absurd creation. This is just how I did it. You may have better ideas if you’re creative. Good luck!Update: I have installed these on a second pair, tecovas this time. I learned a lot from the first time and these came out much better.1. Use a hairdryer or heat gun to warm the protectors, and shape them to pre-fit the soles of your shoes. They become soft when warm and can be worked into a cupped shape.2. Use a carpet “hooked” shape blade in your razor knife when trimming the excess. Heat the rubber when doing this as well, it cuts very very smoothly when warm and the hook blade is used. Heat the blade as well.3. After 24 hours when you unwrap the shoes, the glue is not fully hardened. Once the trimming is done, and sections that may not have been pressed fully at the edges can be heated up and clamped with paper clamps and left for a further 24 hours.

Good quality and fast delivery

These things are awesome and basically impervious to damage; a must have for any dress shoe you're interested in maintaining for long periods of itme.

So...yes, these rubber half soles are gigantic. It would be nice if they sold them for a specific size of shoe, but then again, this is where the skills of a cobbler comes in to play. The beautiful part though, is that they can easily be cut with a simple pair of scissors or an X-acto blade, which is what I used, in order to have precision.This is what I did: using "Shoe Goo", and please follow the directions, I generously covered both the rubber half sole as well as the sole of my shoe. Any excess amount can be wiped off. I then tried the best I could to center the half sole with the sole of my shoe, following the natural contours of my shoe. Just do your best since the excess material can be cut away easily. Press the two pieces together tightly, allowing the "Shoe goo" to naturally and fully spread.Get out the duck tape!I then literally wrapped the hell out of the shoe as tightly as I could using duck tape. Don't be modest with your duck tape. Wrap it tight!!! Don't be afraid of the "shoe goo" and the duck tape sticking together, cause they probably will, but it will also come apart when it's time.Allow 48 hours to cure properly...don't be impatient!Unwrap the duck tape and inspect the bond. It will be good, I promise. Just make sure to check for any small gaps. These can be easily fixed using a super glue of some kind.Pull out your X-acto blade and carefully, using the contours of your shoe, cut away the excess rubber material. Once you're satisfied, just use some fine grit sandpaper and gently blend it all together. To make it look even better, assuming you're using a black shoe, smear on some thick tar like shoe polish (such as kiwi shoe polish) to fill any gaps and to create a barrier.That's it guys! just be patient and try to think about and understand what it is you're doing. I have ZERO skills as a cobbler and my shoes came out great!