Adding traction to old sandals?

[Al Nichols]

Hi,

First post in the MYOG forum….
I have an old pair of generic "teva" sandals. They are pretty lightweight, about 9 oz per pair and I love the way they fit my feet. Alas, the traction on the bottom has worn down. I wanted to have them resoled and was told they could not be repaired. Also, I really didn't want to add any significant weight to them, i.e Vibram soles. I've also searched online for places to resole these but at $40.00, it isn't very cost effective. So, now I'm looking for a common, readily available, lightweight and durable material that I can cut to shape and glue to the bottoms of these. Any ideas?

TIA,
Al

[Miguel Arboleda]

This might come in handy.

[Jerry Adams]

Shoe Goo is supposed to work in a case like that though I haven't personally done it

[Ginger Allman]

Soling rubber is sold by the sheet. Search online for cobbler supplies. You can get many different sorts of tread patterns.

However to glue the new rubber onto the bottom of your old sandals you'll have to remove all traces of existing tread. You've got to have a flat surface to glue the new rubber to. Maybe a belt sander would work. It will be handy to trim the edges of the rubber after you've glued it to the sandal, too. That way you can get a professional looking edge.

The gold standard glue to use is Barge cement. Master cement is another brand of it. It's the stuff cobblers use.

Sometimes leather shops have cobbler supplies, too.

[Mike In Socal]

You could try Sugru and see if that works.

http://Www.sugru.com

Mike

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