Repair all of your Household Boots, Shoes, Skates, Etc.

You are about to go out for dinner and your favourite heels, well, lost a heel.

Your son is flapping with half the sole of his sneakers hanging loose.  Or the skateboarder with holes big enough for his foot to fall through.

Your husband’s work boots certainly have a few months left but the rubber sole has separated from the leather part of the boot.

In a household of any size you are eventually going to need some shoe or boot repair, especially if you have children.  And with children and teens you may want to do some fixing on their ice skates, or roller blades.

There are thousands of DYI products for repairing runners(sneakers) out there but I’ll try and show you how you can do most of your home repairs with just one product.

Re-glue rubber tip or part of a sole on a pair of sneakers(rubber to rubber):

1. Ensure both rubber surfaces are dry.
2. Clean the surfaces thoroughly.  One of the biggest barriers to Mister Glue is other, old glue.  Use a degreaser and lightly sand if necessary. *
3. Apply a small amount of Mister Glue to one side only along the edge so that it runs inward.  The more surface area covered the better.    
4. Press both firmly together.
5. If some glue squeezes out, you can leave until it sets up a bit and scrape off.  If you wipe it will likely smear.
6. Set time is a few seconds so the shoes can be worn right away.  Full cure time is a few hours.**

(Note: Tennis shoes: same applies.  And Mister Glue dries clear so you can keep those very white tennis shoes stay white!)

Reattach broken heel off pumps or high heeled shoes(leather to wood):

1. Ensure that both surfaces are clean and dry.
2. Work the two surfaces together to make sure there is enough surface area and that they match up evenly.
3. If either the wood or leather is particularly dried out, apply a small amount of Accelerator(Primer) to the most porous side.
4. Wait about 20-30 seconds.
5. Apply a line of Mister Glue around the edge of the other side.  Criss cross the surface lightly.
6. Press the two surfaces very firmly together for about10-20 seconds.
7. Usually, just give the bond a few minutes to cure and you should be fine.  Go party.

Fix a pair of fabric to rubber house shoes:

(Note: normally, I would not suggest using Mister Glue to bond fabric.  But people just won’t listen and they go ahead and glue fabric to other things very successfully.)

1. As in other applications, clean surfaces of other glue, dirt and grease.
2. Apply Mister Glue to the non fabric surface.  (If you apply to the fabric it will likely soak in too quickly and too far to be of any use.)
3. Press the two surfaces together for 10-20 seconds and
4. Add a few drops as necessary where the two surfaces have not closed up completely.

As I mentioned, Mister Glue was not necessarily made for fabric but if done correctly it seems to work.  I had another customer glue 'hair' back to a vinyl mask - a Halloween thing - told me it did a great job. But always apply the glue to the non fabric side, then put the two together!

You can see in video above, Mister Glue customer sent in showing this application

(Note: the one thing this customer should have used instead of the napkin is a piece of cardboard underneath instead of the napkin.  The glue could too easily leak through the napkin but not the cardboard.)

Repair that gaping hole in the skateboarder’s shoes:

(Many will use Shoe Goo for this.  Using a piece of closed cell neoprene. This is denser than the foamy stuff. You can often get scraps from a dive shop.  If you have an avid skateboarder in your house, you may want to keep a little bit around for quick repairs.)

1. Clean off any loose bits of cloth or rubber.
2. Degrease both surfaces.
3. Use some Mister Glue’s Uncure or something to get rid of any old glue.
4. If the Uncure or whatever you use doesn’t completely do the trick, use some light sandpaper to clean up the rest of the surface.
5. Using a very sharp knife or Exacto blade to cut a proper size piece of neoprene.  If you can, cut the edges on an angle so that the edge tapers to the surface you are gluing to.  Make sure that it overlaps an inch or so.
6. Apply Mister Glue to the neoprene.
7. Press the neoprene piece to the shoe covering the hole.  You are likely going to put your other hand inside to press the two surfaces together for 10-20 seconds. Pay particular attention to squeezing the edges together. You can add a drop or to here or there if you did not put enough to squeeze to the edges. Be a little careful here as you likely don’t want to be permanently glued to the inside or outside of the skate board shoe you are repairing.
8. An alternate fix here would be to use a thin piece of neoprene on the inside and another on the outside.

(Note: the neoprene is flexible and gives some cushion.  Mister Glue dries flexible.)

Repair your husband’s work boots:

(Note: if the leather has become very dried out and split, there is likely no fixing.  But if there is enough surface area between sole and the upper part of the shoe, there should be no problem getting a good fix.)

1. Toughest thing on these is cleaning the surfaces.  You may have to scrub a bit.  Get the dirt off with some soap and water and if necessary some degreaser.
2. If the leather has become very dried out use Mister Glue’s Accelerator(Primer) on one side.  Apply so that it soaks in to the area being glued.
3. Apply Mister Glue to the other side.
4. Press the two sides firmly together.  If very dry, you may need to put a few drops along the edge when the two surfaces are squeezed together.  It will wick in nicely.
5. Sometimes the leather over the steel toe on workbooks gets worn through to the metal and creates a spot where water can leak in.  Not a permanent solution but a piece of shaped rubber would likely do a better job than leather.
6. Shape the piece of rubber and make sure that it overlaps the hole. This, hopefully, will give you a few more weeks of waterproof wear out of the boots.

*If the previous glue is a super glue type glue(cyanoacrylate), you can use Mister Glue's Uncure. Other solvents will work but some stronger ones will damage certain surfaces, so check any instructions before application.

** Full cure time for Mister Glue is several hours.  Set time is measured in seconds.  I have taken two pieces of PVC pipe and glued them end to end with Mister Glue and within 30 minutes smashed it with a hammer.  Broke somewhere else than where I attached.