Boot soles coming off - always carry string!

Dammit, FrankB, I've just been trying to cut down on the amount of 'stuff' I carry but your suggestion is a good one! lol Yet another small item to fill up the top pocket. JETNZ - I will keep you posted but I don't honestly think I will ever use those boots again on multi-day trips, even if they get fixed, as I can never trust them again. Being a 'handy-man' I'm going to give it a go fixing them myself as I've found that Stirling Sports etc. carry 'Shoe Goo'. Will wash the glued area first; then blow dry it with compressed air; glue and hold together with many 'rubber bands' made from inner tubes for maybe 2 days. Hopefully this will work. Oh for the days of sewn on soles! Once the heavy duty 'Commando' soles wore out you just got new ones sewn on. I do have an old pair of Meindle Makalus with sewn on soles, but they are so heavy I rarely use them now. I guess the weight of all those screws etc. all added up. I do have other pairs of boots to use but those Asolos were nice, comfy and lightweight. And they fitted well, right from the start.

Found strapping tape more effective for holding soles on ... electricians tape was severed very quickly at the edges of the soles. As for asolo not used for a few years but found about 1 in 5 pairs fell apart in first fortnight of use - either soles or stitching or both. But they were always very happy to honour their warranty including couriering a replacement pair. Had replacements posted both when buying through h&f and direct from importer in Rangiora. Unlike meindl who do not allow retailers to replace, forcing you direct to the importer in Alex who just tell you it must be your own fault because their boots do not fail.

The other day when I realised my sole was coming off I first bound it up with strapping tape but it only lasted about half an hour. I then ferreted around in my pack and found the shoe lace which lasted the rest of the trip - maybe 5 hours. I've now got 3 laces in the pack!

As im a stingy old crumudgen now (so im told), i have done a bit of research on rubber and glues for same. "Rubber: is now a vast range of natural and synthetic compounds, mostly of the TPE and TPR family of chemicals. As far as i got was: - there are two broad familys of specialist TPR adhesives, so positively identifiying the materials is important. - each one has its own solvent cleaning requirements - patch kits for white water rafts, contain the glue and matching solvent for the TPR that "your average" boot soles are made of. - avoid just about all the glues people recomend like F2, cyanacrylate, etc, youll just have more mess to clean off first. - in a pinch, if you cant identify and get the right adhesive, with excruciating cleanliness 3M E5200 (avail. marine chandlers) will stick to (nearly) anything, and ive had good success using it to reinforce and build up the toe area of my geriatric La Sportiva Nepals.

An awl made by sticking a heavy duty industrial sewing machine needle in the end of a short piece of dowel is the trick for long lasting field repairs to soles of boots and anything else coming apart while out there. Carry some heavy spectra fishing line as well. You can sew through the sole of a boot and the uppers all the way around and it won't come apart. Place the stitching in the grooves between the tread and it's unlikely to get cut on rocks, but spectra fishing line is pretty abrasion resistant. We were in out first week if a projected 60 day trip in western Nepal when my partners boot soles started coming off. I sewed them back together with nylon cord and my awl and they were still OK 50 days walking later. If you haven't got an awl, poking holes with a red hot nail and threading cord through to sew things back together works as well, bonus is the water drains out more quickly with all those holes around the edge. Tape might get you through a couple of days but not much longer. I'll try and post a picture of my awl, its basically a heavy industrial sewing machine needle stuck in the end of a 3 cm piece of dowel. The dowel forms a plug in the end of a felt tip pen (having cut the pen end off). Needle end inside for storage in the first aid kit, needle end out when using. Keep a couple of ordinary needles inside the pen tube for normal sewing. There are commercial versions available, but this is lighter and more compact and quick to make.

This is my awl/repair kit. Made from a sharpie pen, a piece of dowel and a heavy duty industrial sewing machine needle. With this, I can sew through at least two thicknesses of belt leather with 80lb test dyneema fishing line. Boots or pack straps are going to stay together if you get a reasonable number of stitches in with this stuff. Dyneema fishing line, ordinary heavy duty polyester sewing thread and some sewing needles all fit inside the pen. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/10731244/awl1.jpg https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/10731244/awl2.jpg https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/10731244/awl3.jpg

That's clever. I may copy that if it's not patent pending :) I keep a small coil of bead thread for pack etc repairs but I've never thought to use dyneema fishing line.

@Ian_H, That looks great! Far more useful and usable than a big needle and dental floss I carry.

Impressed! Always enjoy seeing these useful clever inventions. How did you anchor the needle, drill a hole and drop a bit of wood glue in there?

I just drill a 1 mm pilot hole before pushing the needle in. The needle base dia is closer to 1.5 mm so it's a tight fit once it's forced in. Sharpening the base of the needle helps.