Traditionally constructed shoes, not least stitched ones, are almost always marketed with emphasis on the possibilities of resoling and repairing them. It often appears that they can be resoled forever. It’s not that simple, though. Here I go through the possibilities and shortcomings of the most common construction methods, as well as the conditions for re-heeling and resoling.
Re-heeling
A re-heeling can be carried out completely free of engagement with the sole, together with attaching a rubber topy or doing a half sole replacement, or with full resole when it’s automatically required. The most important thing to keep in mind, as I mentioned earlier here on the blog, is to fix the heel before wearing down the rubber part at the far end and start wearing on the heel lifts. The top-piece rubber and leather are durable and made to withstand wear, but when you enter the lifts they are on most RTW shoes made of more simple leather (or even fibre board if you have Allen Edmonds or Alden, for example) and take damage faster, and if these need to be replaced, the cobbler must work much more with balancing and it immediately becomes a more complicated and therefore more expensive procedure.
A heel on a Dainite soled shoe heavily worn. These are very thick, yet here the owner have worn them down almost all the way down to the lifts.
Here after a re-heel, where the whole rubber top-piece has been exchanged. Pictures: Davidsons skomakeri
When changing heels you can usually choose if you want a factory variant with only the back part in rubber and the rest in leather, or a whole rubber top piece (which is obviously standard if it’s rubber soles used). The former is usually a bit more expensive. Re-heeling can usually be done basically an infinite number of times, but there is a danger that is relatively unknown, and not very common, but which can be interesting to know anyway. It’s that if the brass nails used corrode with time due to moisture creeping up the heel, this can damage the insole, in the worst case, so bad that the leather becomes porous and new nails can’t attach. There are many aspects that come into play here, the alloy on the brass nails (brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, and the less zinc used the more resistance to corrosion), the quality of the insole, how the shoes are used and so on. Because of this risk, many bespoke shoemakers only use wooden pegs. However, as mentioned, this is not something you need to lay restless on, as the risk is not very imminent, even if it’s there.
Re-heeling at a cobbler is not that expensive, around €20-30 in Europe, although it costs more if the heel lifts below the top piece is worn down. Note though that these prices vary a lot around the world, this is just to pinpoint the direction.
Apply a rubber topy
To attach a rubber topy onto the leather sole is a controversial topic, some do it straight away before the leather soles even touch the ground, others could never imagine destroying their fine leather soles this way. I’m not going to get into any deeper discussion about this, more than repeating the well-used argument that it could be good to at least use the leather sole first before putting on the rubber topy, instead of letting the shoemaker grind several millimeters of a new fine leather sole to attach to the rubber wear part. If you like the feeling of a leather sole but don’t want to spend money on a resole you can also attach a leather sole topy, or to protect the tip of the toe which is most prone to wear with metal toe taps or flush metal or rubber toe taps (more about these in this article).
Nicely attached rubber topy, although done before the leather sole was even used once, which one might think is a shame. Picture: The Shoe Snob
Worth noting, however, is that you can’t just put on a topy and then plan to just change that part to avoid more expensive resoling, at least not if it’s high-quality shoes that you plan to wear for many year. It’s not only the outsole that is worn, but the footbed that most often consists of cork paste on RTW shoes, a material that has a limited life, is fugitive and needs to be replaced from time to time, the shank (a reinforcement under the arch that is usually in wood, metal or plastic) can become loose or break, and in the worst case, the insole cracks (see more about that below).
Putting on a rubber topy costs about €20 at a cobbler.
Resoling Blake stitched shoes
A Blake shoe (for a clearer overview of the different construction methods, read this post. Here the focus is on the repair aspect) is, contrary to what many people think, easy to resole. The problem here, however, is that you need a so-called McKay machine, a special long-arm sewing machine that can reach in at the toe section of the shoe. This is not common, but a number of cobblers have one. Some manufacturers that use Blake construction also offer a resoling service in their factory. Just like welted shoes, you can do a half sole replacement on Blake shoes, where you just change the part from the waist to the toe, leaving the waist.
An American coobler in front of a modern version of the McKay sewing machine. Picture: Yelp
On the other hand, one should be aware of the fact that the number of resoles possible for a Blake stitched shoe is limited. This is due to the fact that the seam goes through all parts of the shoe: insole, upper leather and outsole. When resoling the seam must be removed completely, and then a new stitch is sewn straight through all these parts again. This means that the new stitches are put in places other than the original ones, and for each resoling, new holes and especially the upper are hollowed out like a cheese and becomes so weakened by the holes that it can no longer handle the strains. It’s difficult to say exactly how many resoles that can be done, it depends on so many different circumstances, there can be as few as one-two, it can be up to four-five. Also, since when removing the Blake stitch you don’t have anything but glue holding the upper and insole together, there is a risk that this comes loose, and in this case you ideally would need the original lasts to put the shoe together again fully balanced.
A Blake/Rapid constructed shoe can be said to be repair-wise in the middle of this category and Goodyear welted below. If only the outsole needs to be replaced and the midsole is in good condition, then it works in exactly the same way as replacing the outsole on a Goodyear welted shoe. However, if you need to replace also the midsole or even the insole, it’s the same position as for a regular Blake stitched shoe.
A half sole replacement including re-heeling of a Blake stitched shoe costs somewhere around €70, and a full resole around €130. If you return them to the factory, the prices vary a lot, but usually between €100-150.
Resoling Goodyear welted shoes
Goodyear welted shoes have excellent opportunities to be resoled many times, but a number of facts actually takes this down a bit. I will try to explain why in a reasonably understandable way, but apologise if it gets a bit confusing.
The whole brilliance of the welted construction is that you can easily change the outsole without having to touch the most important point of attachment in the shoe, the one that holds the upper leather and the insole together. The most common criticism made against Goodyear welted shoes is that the entire construction is in fact held together with glue, this being done with so cold gemming, where a canvas rib is glued to the insole (there are a few exceptions, for example JM Weston, who still sometimes still have full leather insoles but still sew with a Goodyear machine). In this canvas strip you then attach the upper leather and the welt with a Goodyear seam. The canvas rib can come loose from the insole, or it becomes worn and breaks. If it has only loosened a little, it’s usually quite easy to glue it back again, but if it has come loose over a larger area or if it’s broken, then you may need to change the whole canvas rib. Then the shoe should preferably sit on its original last so that it doesn’t loose its balance, which must then be done in the manufacturer’s factory. How common these problems are is heavily debated. I’d say they do happen every now and then, but it’s not common.
An insole gets a canvas rib attached in Gaziano & Girling’s factory.
A cut-through image of a heavier, double soled shoe. Also note how thick the cork layer is on a Goodyear welted shoe, to fill out the void caused by the canvas rib. Picture: Styleforum
Another functional difference between Goodyear welted and hand welted shoes, except that Goodyear has glued canvas rib where hand welted has a holdfast cut directly out of the insole, is that the Goodyear machine stitches a chain stitch, instead of a shoemaker’s stitch / saddler’s stitch. With a shoemaker’s stitch each stitch is locked separately (the sole stitch which is made with a Rapid machine/sole stitching machine is stitched with another type of lock stitch which is better, though still not comparable to a shoemaker’s stitch) so if a stitch comes loose it’s not a problem since the rest keeps intact, while the chain stitch does not have this locking, so if a stitch comes loose the surrounding ones are affected. No difference in how it is repaired, but worth knowing anyway.
The main reason why the number of resoles that can be done on a Goodyear welted shoe is limited, just like with the Blake shoe, is that you risk making new holes in the material. This is partly the case with the seam that holds the welt and outsole together, which means that after some re-soles, the welt may need to be exchanged only because it has been punched weaker by new stitches, even if one has been careful and taken care of the welt well and never let it wear down in front of the toe or similar. Changing the welt is no problem in terms of new holes on the shoe if it’s done by a cobbler, as they almost always do it by hand and sews in the holes already there in the upper leather and canvas rib (very few cobbler’s have access to an expensive Goodyear machine). However, If it’s done in the factory, it’s made with a machine that makes new holes, which will weaken the upper leather. And an issue here is that when factories do resoles and refurbishments, they often replace also the welt, even if it’s not really needed (since it can actually be easier for them even if it adds a step, the rest of the resole job becomes more straight forward with a new welt).
Here we have the paradox that can in fact be said to limit the number of possible resoles of a Goodyear welted shoe. The ideal distribution would have been to let the cobbler do a number of resoles first, and then when the welt is worn down and/or even the gemming has come loose and a more proper lookover is in need, they are sent to the factory for a resole with them, where they have the original last and can put the shoe back on it. The problem here, however, is that many manufacturers do not accept shoes for factory resoling if a third party has been working on the shoes, ie cobblers. This means that in reality one has to choose between using cobblers at home who can fix the shoes relatively gently, but in the situation where major repair is needed and the original last have to be used, they are much more difficult to fix. Or you always send the shoes back to the factory for resoling, which then risks over time that the upper leather is so damaged by new stitches that it can no longer be used.
The reason why the factories have this requirement is that, unfortunately, there are far too many bad cobblers around the world, which can totally ruin a shoe because of poorly made work and radically complicate the work for the factories. If we only had good cobbler doing the right thing, the factories would have had no trouble receiving third-party repaired shoes, they could have fixed them as usual, but the bad cobblers have in a way ruined this possibility. I would hope that more factories could say that they accept shoes repaired in a good way by good cobblers, but refuse the bad ones, although I can understand the administrative challenges with this approach.
A heavily worn Edward Green shoe, where you can see that the canvas rib and also the insole are in bad condition.
Here the same shoe, where the Goodyear seam is cut. Pictures: Permanent Style
When it’s time for a resole it’s usually the toe that is very worn down to the welt, in combination with a hole under the ball of the foot, where most strains are on the shoe. Do avoid using them if a hole have appeared, it may damage the shoes inside. Picture: The Understated Gent
Another “lifespan-limiting” aspect for Goodyear welted shoes is that if you end up in a position where the insole needs to be replaced, it may not be possible to do so even if you have original last and even if the upper leather is in good condition at the mounting area at the bottom. This if you end up in a position where it is not possible to pull the upper leather low enough for it to reach down long enough to be able to be sewn onto the canvas rib and the welt again. Since the insoles used by many Goodyear welted manufacturers do not maintain the high quality they used to do, it may also mean that they need to be replaced and that the above problems then arise. And they are always much thinner than the insole of a hand welted shoe, this is since you want to make room for the cavity that comes with the gemming, and to keep costs down.
A cobbler attach a new welt on a Goodyear welted shoe by hand.
A shoe that has had a half sole replacement, where only the part that touches the ground is changed. Pictured: St. James Style
A shoe in for a factory repair at John Lobb Paris in Northampton, where welt is removed and the canvas rib needs some work.
Now, it should be said that all these problems that I address above do not necessarily have to happen to you as the owner of Goodyear welted shoes. The vast majority of shoes can do without these potential difficulties for as long as the upper is in good condition and you still want to resole them, and then nothing that affects the lifespan of the shoe. To be frank, it’s rare that people have to discard a pair of Goodyear welted shoes since it can’t be resoled anymore, usually one feel it’s not worth the money for a resole due to it being in a too bad overall condition anyway, and one buys a new pair. However, I think it’s good to know that the number of resoles can still be said to be limited to a Goodyear welted shoe, as it is often marketed as it being possible to repair them forever and ever. Here it’s also very individual and depending on so many different factors affecting how many times it’s possible to resole a specific shoe, both in what they are exposed to, how they are made, what extent of care is made, and so on. It can be anything from just a couple of times to six-seven. But there’s no way around the fact that the Goodyear welted construction method is a way to mass produce shoes, it’s still an excellent construction method, but the opportunities for cheaper production on a large scale brings its problems.
The cost for a half sole replacement of a Goodyear welted shoe including re-heeling is about €90 at a cobbler in West Europe, full-resole about €170 (if the welt needs to be changed or if you want closed channel sole it costs more). At factories, everything between €100 and €250 (best to email the manufacturers directly and ask).
Resoling hand welted shoes
Now, some have already been said in the above section, but what makes a hand welted shoe having the possibility to be resoled basically an unlimited number of times, is just that fact that the insole and the lip / holdfast is a unit, where the holdfast is carved out of a thick insole. In order to get a strong holdfast, a good long lasting insole material is required that fits the purpose, which means that the whole insole generally always is of good quality and is also considerably thicker than on Goodyear welted shoe. Pure structural advantages are, as mentioned, that when hand welting a shoemaker’s stitch is always used and that the cavity formed between the insole and the outsole becomes thinner, which also allows the use of cork plates, porous leather, felt (which can have some advantages) instead of cork paste for the footbed.
Here you see how thick an insole on a hand welted shoe can be. The long fibre leather adopts well to the foot and in many ways take over the function that the cork paste on a Goodyear welted shoe has, with the difference that this it’s longer lasting. Picture: Candi Cobbler
Here (and on the top image) you can see how tight a hand welted shoe becomes, with basically no void that needs to be filled. Top picture: DW Frommer
If you need to change the welt on hand welted shoes, the seam is always sewn into existing holes, also when they are sent back to the manufacturer, which means that the material is subjected to much less strain than in Goodyear welt repairs. The outsole stitching are in some cases made with machine for RTW hand welted shoes, and cobblers who repairs hand welted shoes tend to use also a machine for the sole stitch, and in these cases the wear on the welt where it gets more and more holes can be evident. However, we have the advantage that the welt can be replaced indefinitely since it’s made by hand. If you send the shoes back to a manufacturer who sews the sole stitch by hand (so not Staint Crispin’s or Enzo Bonafé for example, but Vass, Bestetti etc, and almost all bespoke shoemakers), then existing holes on the outside of the welt are used and it’s less strain put on them.
For the aforementioned reasons, a hand welted shoe can manage its entire life with one and the same welt. Exceptions are obvious, for example, in this aspect, it is a disadvantage with a very tightly cut sole edge, since at every resole it’s necessary to sand the side with welt and sole edge evenly and thus have to take a little bit off from the edge every time. Finally, you get so close to the stitches and the upper leather that the welt has to be changed (this also applies to Goodyear welted shoes).
The cost of resoling of hand welted shoes by machine at a cobbler is the same as for Goodyear welted shoes, so about €90 for a half sole replacement, including heels, around €170 for a full resole. At the manufacturer, the price level is also very varied, everything from €150-500 depending on how much hand work and refurbishing being made etc.
Rubber soles
I add a small section on this, as the difference compared to leather soles is that you almost always do a full resole on rubber soled shoes. Simply because you buy a whole rubber sole and you might as well change it all, also complicated to do a nice connection between old and new rubber sole, and also the heel is often worn and need to be changed anyway.
The price level is, therefore, just as in the case of the full-resole of Goodyear and hand welted shoes, see above.
FWIW, and if I’m not mistaken, your lead photo in this article is one I took (and posted on both SF and my IG feed) of a handwelted shoe that I made. I took the photo for the express purpose of illustrating how little filler is needed on a HW shoe…before or after repair.
DWFII: Ah sorry, thought it was a similar picture I’ve taken of a G&G shoe (the article is an old one on the Swedish version of the blog I translated). Added photo credit both here and on Instagram.
Jesper,
Hey, No worries. I’m proud you thought it worthy and illustrative enough to include it. I admire your take on all this and anytime you want to use that or any other photo of mine to make a point regarding “Good, better, best” feel free (credit would be nice but that’s just my ego talking).
Jesper,
thank you for this post. This is one of your best—I read all of them (that are in English). The only section that is missing is the resoling of cemented shoes. There is a myth—distributed by producers and sellers of welted shoes—that cemented shoes can not be resoled. However every cobbler knows that resoling of cemented shoes is possible and even easier (and cheaper) than resoling of welted shows: they do not need to make stitching, just unglue the old sole and glue the new sole. By the way, the same unglue-and-glue process is used as a step in resoling of welted shoes. Since no hole punching is needed, do you think that cemented shoes can be resoled infinitely many times?
DWFII: Cheers for that! And I always give credit when I use others’ pictures, it’s the right thing to do.
Alexandre: The problem with cemented shoes is that there are so many different types, and it varies a lot on how they can be resoled. The statement you do above is true for some cemented shoes, but it’s not correct for many. In many cases it’s difficult to remove the outsole without having the rest of the shoe coming loose, for example upper loosing from insole (if there is one…) etc, and then you would ideally need the original last to be able to assembly it fully balanced. Sometimes you even ruin the shoes for good if you remove the outsole, you can only add new layers to the existing ones. To say that on cemented shoes you “just unglue the old sole and glue the new sole” is therefore not correct, it only goes for some types of cemented shoes.
Of course you use glue on welted shoes as well, but the whole point of the welt stitch and construction is to make sure that the above mentioned risk of things coming loose in the fundamental parts of the shoe stays intact. If you have a seam, it keeps things together.
Re: cement sole construction…one of the major reasons to do cement construction in the first place is to make a lighter weight, more flexible shoe. That necessitates thinner insoles (often even paperboard insoles) and thinner, less dense, less firm outsoles.
The upshot is that, as you say, removing the old outsole is problematic. Any technique, such as heat or brute force, or chemical that will loosen the cement used to attach the outsole to the upper will also loosen the upper from the insole.
Probably the only technique I know that can reasonably avoid that loosening is to grind the old outsole down to a very thin layer and then cement a new outsole on top. The heat of grinding may be a factor if not done judiciously but otherwise it is a fairly reliable approach. Fundamentally this is the same technique that is used to add sole guards (Topy, etc.) and the same basic concept as the original construction–cement.
I suspect that when originally conceived cement sole construction was never intended to be anything but disposable.
Jesper,
Just a little comment to thank you for this very informative and well thought-out post. I’ve read a lot of articles on the subject, and while yours doesn’t contradict them, it goes deeper into details as to what can be done or not, depending on some very specific points.
We need more articles (not talking about your website, but the fashion industry in general) with this level of information ! 🙂
Christopher: Thanks a lot for the kind words!
Jesper, thank you for this educational article. I have a question about something you mention: namely, you state that felt has some advantages over cork. Would you mind expanding on what those advantages are?
George: Cheers! The advantages of felt is mainly that it’s less fugitive then cork, meaning that it will keep it’s conformed shape better while cork can through the years loosen up and dissolve. This is for cork plates then, for cork paste, this is happening much earlier.
Hi Jesper, just doing a little back catalogue reading of your articles which coincided with me getting a pair of shoes back from my cobbler. It was just (he says just) a re-heel: but I was a bit nervous as I wanted a like for like heel on a, well, precious (to me) pair of Tricker’s single monks with broguing – a rugged and well-made shoe. The guy actually did a good job on inspection. The heel stacks weren’t worn and he put a dovetailed top lift in rubber. The shoe has a rubber half sole, which didn’t need replacing. It got me thinking about how attached to the shoes I am. While other people would definitely consider chucking and buying new at the prospect of a re-sole or new welt and re-sole, I think with some shoes I would decide to go back to factory for refurbishment. That’s provided they’ll touch the shoe if it’s been messed with. I think key here is maintaining the uppers: if the uppers are not conditioned, the shoe might not warrant a re-sole….
Thanks for the detail you provide in your articles.
Anthony
Hey, George! Cheers! One advantage of felt is that it will keep its shape better than cork over the years since it is less fugitive than cork. However, cork can gradually loosen and dissolve as it ages.
Hi Jesper, I took a pair of Weejuns I have to a local cobbler who resoled them for me. I didn’t ask him at the outset how he was going to do it, and he sliced away the front portion of the sole leather and stitched a new piece of leather into place. This isn’t something I had come across previously. He’s done a good job and the cost was very reasonable, but do you think this will affect the possibility of getting a full resole done later? Cheers.
Jim Bainbridge: Did you read the article? It sounds like he has done a regular half sole replacement, which is mentioned in several places and pictured in the article.
Excellent article, Jesper. I’m based in London, so a rubber toppy is essential for added grip. In your experience, how many times can the rubber toppy typically be replaced before a full resole is required? Additionally, are there any specific signs I should watch for that indicate it may be time for a resole when using a rubber toppy?