Corky
Practically Family
- Messages
- 507
- Location
- West Los Angeles
Of interest to anyone who walks any distance in boots:
A few years back, I noticed a weakness in the design of most contemporary boots. There is little or no padding at the heel, so that when one walks in them, one's heel bone comes down in contact with the boot's hard flat liner or insole. There is little padding at the bottom of the human heel, so the impact goes right into the bone. (This is one reason why so many people walk around in running shoes: athletic shoes have more padding and are generally more comfortable if you have to walk any distance.)
This problem can be particularly annoying in cowboy boots, because the tacks which are used to attach the heel can come loose and you can feel them biting into your heel as you walk. The problem is the same with a stacked leather, hard rubber, or vibram heel. Spending more on boots doesn't help: Frye, Timberland, Doc Marten's, and the other premium boots all seem to lack a padded heel surface. The manufacturers save a few cents and most customers don't notice.
The solution is simple: get some leather-covered foam rubber heel pads and attach them to the inside of the heels of your boots with Barge Cement.
The leather heel pads can be found at almost any shoemaker's shop or ordered via Amazon.com. The pads have some kind of double-sticky tape thing on the bottom to hold them in place, but these are sadly inadequate.
Barge Cement is an essential tool of shoe makers and leather craftsmen. It is an old-fashioned hide-based glue which becomes more flexible with use. One applies a coat of cement to each surface to be joined and puts them aside for 15 minutes, then clamps them together and let them dry overnight.
This boot heel tip is no a big deal, but it is one of those things like moving up from wearing a cheap wool fedora to wearing a premium felt: in the long run, it feels so good that you wonder why you didn't start doing it years ago.
A few years back, I noticed a weakness in the design of most contemporary boots. There is little or no padding at the heel, so that when one walks in them, one's heel bone comes down in contact with the boot's hard flat liner or insole. There is little padding at the bottom of the human heel, so the impact goes right into the bone. (This is one reason why so many people walk around in running shoes: athletic shoes have more padding and are generally more comfortable if you have to walk any distance.)
This problem can be particularly annoying in cowboy boots, because the tacks which are used to attach the heel can come loose and you can feel them biting into your heel as you walk. The problem is the same with a stacked leather, hard rubber, or vibram heel. Spending more on boots doesn't help: Frye, Timberland, Doc Marten's, and the other premium boots all seem to lack a padded heel surface. The manufacturers save a few cents and most customers don't notice.
The solution is simple: get some leather-covered foam rubber heel pads and attach them to the inside of the heels of your boots with Barge Cement.
The leather heel pads can be found at almost any shoemaker's shop or ordered via Amazon.com. The pads have some kind of double-sticky tape thing on the bottom to hold them in place, but these are sadly inadequate.
Barge Cement is an essential tool of shoe makers and leather craftsmen. It is an old-fashioned hide-based glue which becomes more flexible with use. One applies a coat of cement to each surface to be joined and puts them aside for 15 minutes, then clamps them together and let them dry overnight.
This boot heel tip is no a big deal, but it is one of those things like moving up from wearing a cheap wool fedora to wearing a premium felt: in the long run, it feels so good that you wonder why you didn't start doing it years ago.
