Shoe Glue...will it work for you?

I feel like this could be the perfect Suess-ian post. That whole shoe – glue thing is pretty tempting…

One shoe, two shoe.

Red shoe, blue shoe.

Black shoe, blue shoe.

Old shoe, new shoe.

This one has a little gash, this one was headed to the trash.

Say! What a lot of banged up shoes there are.

Most of my shoes could use…shoe glue.

I don’t know if I’ve been living under a rock, or what…but I didn’t really know that “shoe glue” existed. Glue, yes. Glue specific for a shoe? Never heard of it. So when I saw this $3 shoe glue one day in the craft store, I decided to pick it up and give it a try.

I had a couple pair of shoes that I’d been holding onto despite the fact that they were pretty banged up. Broken buckles, broken straps. There wasn’t much to lose by trying this product out, so I did!

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Supplies needed for a shoe glue repair job:

shoe glue (I’ve linked the brand we used. There are others, but this brand appeared to have the best reviews I saw, as well.)
busted up shoe(s)
paper towels
clamps (I love the ones linked. They are inexpensive, come in a set with a variety of sizes making them very versatile)

How to repair shoes with shoe glue:

This one-minute video should honestly show you all you would need to know in order to tackle your shoe CPR…

But if you’re more of a written word type, I’ve got you covered 🙂

1.) Make sure broken area of shoe is clean.

Truth? I didn’t do ANYTHING to my shoes to prep them for this repair save taking them out of the closet. But the glue probably would work best on a clean-ish, dust-free surface. So if you want to do things the right way, scrub em up a bit first. A wet paper towel will probably be enough to take care of this step.

2.) Place a small amount of glue on both of the surfaces which need to be adhered.

**Before you open the glue, make sure you are completing this project OUTSIDE. This glue definitely has a STRONG odor, and warnings on the label as well about doing this in well-ventilated areas.

3.) Wait 2 minutes before pairing broken areas/ends.

The glue apparently needs to cure just a touch before you bind the broken areas of your shoe together. Waiting 2 minutes allows the glue to get a bit tacky before you set the broken areas in the position you want them to stay in.

4.) Pair broken ends/areas, then clamp.

Put Humpty Dumpty back together again. Once you’re happy with how the shoe looks, use some clamps to keep things positioned as they should be while the glue cures. This will take 24 hours.

5.) Remove any excess glue before dry.

Once you clamp your shoe, you may see some excess glue seeping out from around the edges of your repair. Use a screwdriver, or toothpick…anything save your fingers to remove any excess glue before it dries. If you don’t take care of this, you’ll see some of the glue there once it has dried. Although it’s clear, it’s still noticeable, so take a minute and clean up the area.

6.) Remove clamps, rock those good-as-new kicks!

Since I had never even heard of shoe glue before, I really didn’t have any sort of expectation about how this project would turn out. Plus, this glue cost a whopping $3, so how good could it really be? But I did read through a bunch of reviews of different types of shoe glue, and this brand got pretty solid reviews.

And having tried it now myself, I was HAPPILY surprised! At this point it’s been a couple of months since I tackled this little project, and ALL of the shoes I fixed are going strong! The repairs have held, and are still looking great. I would DEFINITELY buy and use this product again (and no, this glue company did not pay me to tell you guys that ?).