What are you supposed to know about sneakers? You know about botting and copping, about proxies and the types of servers, and even about reselling and bulk buying! You know it all, right? Wrong. You missed one thing: shoe repair.
Repairing your kicks is the way to go to increase the lifetime of sneakers. Imagine giving your favorite beaters a few more years to live before they’re completely dead. It also helps your new kicks to remain in pristine conditions much longer!
Sneaker care is a whole other field you need to explore and excel. And, one very critical path in that field is actually shoe repair! This part of being a sneakerhead ranges from cleaning mud stains and dirt off your kicks to gluing torn soles. It might also include fixing your bad sizing choices by trying to stretch them.
Otherwise, it’s a flip-and-buy situation. This means you’ll have to sell your sneakers and buy a new one! That could potentially be an L in itself! So, follow one of our size guides linked below to avoid these types of situations!
– Yeezy Size Guide
– Air Jordan Size Guide
– Nike Dunks Size Guide
Shoe Repair & Care in 5 Steps
- Stretching Shoes After Messing Up the Size
- Cleaning Away Bad Choices
- Tied Up in Shoe Repair
- Sneaker Storage Secrets
- Tears, Scuffs, and Broken Soles!
#1 Stretching Shoes After Messing Up the Size
So, the first and most common situation for shoe repair happens to be stretching out your shoes. Sometimes on release day, the excitement of copping some heat might leave your focus a bit foggy. This can lead to ultimately messing up your foot size. Even if you had checked all the guides beforehand, you may have missed that one half on release day!
And, if you had your heart set on the flex, then flipping this sneaker is not the solution! Thankfully, fixing up a half size is pretty feasible! All you gotta do is STRETCH! So, if you want a comprehensive guide on how to stretch your sneakers – depending on the material – click here!
#2 Cleaning Away Bad Choices
Another part of shoe repair happens to be care and maintenance. In other words, a little bit of cleaning here and there really helps elongate the lifetime of your kicks!
Of course, the occasional wipe of some surface dirt is always in order. But, sometimes you gotta go the extra mile and do some real cleaning. Luckily for you, we’ve got just what you need! We’ve got a guide on cleaning Jordans, and a guide on cleaning Yeezys! Once you’ve learned how to clean both, there is no sneaker that you can not clean! Click on the links below!
– Cleaning Jordans Guide
– Cleaning Yeezys Guide
#3 Tied Up in Shoe Repair
Okay, so this shoe repair tip may be very vague to you at first. But, the more you think of it the more it will make sense. You see, a lot of your sneaker damage could potentially come from the way you tie your shoelaces!
With the wrong type of pattern and an excessive amount of pressure, you’ll cause the eyelets to pull on the uppers. With an unsupportive pattern and minimum amount of grip, you’ll cause the sneaker to loosen up. Both of which are very uncomfortable to your feet. So, if you wanna learn how to properly tie your shoelaces, click here!
(You’ll also have pretty epic shoelaces this way!)
#4 Sneaker Storage Secrets
Why does the place where you store your sneakers matter in shoe repair? Well, you see, a lot of the time the environment around you affects the sneaker more than you think. The heat, humidity, the cold, and even the dryness of the air! It all affects the entire sneaker anatomy!
So, being smart with your sneaker storage is a HUGE step towards sneaker care. Especially if you have a sneaker collection! And, guess what? We ALSO have a guide for that! What a complete coincidence. If you’re interested in checking that out, just click here.
#5 Tears, Scuffs, and Broken Soles!
One of the biggest issues in shoe repair happens to be drastic damage caused to the shoe. Especially if we’re talking about your 10-year old beaters which may or may not be salvageable. Although, depending on the amount of damage, you may not be able to resuscitate your sneakers completely. It won’t be totally brand new, but it’ll live to see another day, month, or even a year!
- Worn Down Heels: To extend the lifespan of your shoes (or soles, to be more specific), you can use adhesive attachments. This works especially well for sneakers with less traction and prevents cracked soles and heels! Check out this Kiwi Sure Step that does exactly that!
- Tears and Seal Rips: Now, we know you might be crying actual tears when you tear through your uppers. But, there might be an actual shoe repair hack that does the trick! In short, you can try different shoe glues. Click here for more information.
- Broken Heels: This works the same way as tears and seals rip. You can use adhesive glues to reattach the broken heel or soles. Check the above tip!
- Scratches & Scuffs: To prevent scuffs and scratches use beeswax on canvas shoes, and suede sprays on leather shoes. To FIX some scuffs and scratches, you can use nail polish of the same color or marker pens.
Last Words…
So, although you may still be holding on to your sneakers surviving, sometimes it’s time to let them go. In other words, it might be time for you to find a new sneaker to love! It doesn’t even have to be SUPER expensive! You can always go for the new upcoming Jordans or latest Yeezy releases. But, if you’re saving up for the Holiday season, there are cheaper alternatives that still ROCK! Click on the button below for sneakers UNDER retail that you can buy NOW!
