Minimalist shoes #4

[Leerwerker]

This is my latest pair - on the road now for two weeks and very happy with them.

The improvement on this pair was that I glued a rubber bottom sole to the leather sole - all my previous shoes just had a single piece of leather as the only layer between me and the ground and I only use them indoors - with these I wanted to be able to walk on damp surfaces outside.

The bottom plastic sole is a sheet I bought at Tandy - does anybody know of suppliers that would sell sole materials on a small scale?

[Gogogordy]

I call those "errand-mocs" and they look quite comfy.  Well done.

[doe]

Hey, this is really cool. I'm a minimal-shoe person myself. For closed shoes I've been sticking to Vivobarefoot and Lems but with summer coming I'm going to try making some sandals.

If you search Amazon for "soletech" there are a few sheets of rubber soling material for sale. I have them wishlisted because they come in a few colors. I've also heard of people recycling old car/truck tires.

[tozafoot]

Fantastic shoes!

Like you, I've been wondering how best to add rubber soles to the minimalist shoes, boots and sandals I've been making myself. Ideally, I need a robust sole that wears well, that's nicely flexible with no heel, and that can be firmly attached to the shoe without using solvent-based glues... so far, I haven't found it! Would love suggestions.

To date, I have mostly been using Vibram soles: styles that are completely flat, with no built-in heel, and also fairly flexible. I've been buying these soles via a couple of local shoe-repair shops: if they don't have any on hand, they can get them within a week, and prices are the same or less than I've found online.

I started out by trying Vibram "Elvis" (#1328), which is sold as an "orthopedic" sole. However, I have not been impressed with Elvis: I walk a few miles a day on sidewalks, and the heels of three "Elvis"-shod pairs wore out very quickly. I've now resoled these pairs with Vibram "Newporter" (#1330), which is thicker and seems to be wearing much better. However, there is still wear on the Newporter soles after a few months: perceptibly more than I have experienced on a 6mm-thick sole marketed by Xero Shoes as part of a kit for making "Huarache" sandals. This latter is so far the best sole I have tried in terms of robustness, and it has reasonable grip. However, it is cupped slightly in the heel area so I have only used it for sandals: I haven't tried putting it on a shoe or boot. 

The downsides of using the Vibram soles include:

• Because they are pre-shaped for a shoe with a tapering toe shape, there is a fair amount of waste when I use them. In order to get the width I need for my foot-shaped shoes (which have a wide toe area), I have to buy an X-Large size and trim it down**. This is true for all the rubber soles I have tried: Elvis, Newporter, and also the "Huarache sandals" sole sold by Xero Shoes. If you have a big foot with a wide toe area, it may not be possible to buy a pre-shaped sole large enough to actually fit the shape of your foot-shaped shoe: you'll be restricted to buying sheets of soling material.
• I've been attaching the rubber Vibram sole to the leather outsole using barge cement. While this works very well, I can't stand the fumes from the cement (I still find them totally noxious even when I do all the gluing outside), and am really reluctant to do this on any kind of frequent basis.

I would much prefer to have a sole that I cut out of a sheet so that there is less waste, and that I can stitch on rather than having to glue it. I tried stitching crepe soles onto a couple of pairs of unlasted shoes, but the crepe really isn't robust enough for the sorts of wear I give my footwear, and the soles quickly wore down to the level of the stitching. My local shoe repairman has been very nice in letting me look at the sheets of material he gets from his supplier (Vibram, Soletech, Birkenstock), but most seem too stiff or too thin. I did wonder about trying a sheet of Vibram XS City, but was worried it would wear less well than the Newporter, as it is thinner (only 4mm).

A rubber sole cut out of an old tire tread is also an option I intend to try at some point, but first I need to find the right kind of tire: easier said than done. Also, I don't think it will be possible to stitch a tire-sole onto my leather outsole: it will have to be glued. I don't use solvent-based glues anywhere else in my shoe construction: I stitch everything. So I would rather find an option that I can stitch rather than glue...

 

** Here's a photo of one of my shoes that I stuck a Vibram Elvis sole onto with barge cement: I've trimmed the sides already but still have to trim the excess rubber off the front of the sole