Resoles Overview

RESOLES

1 Determine whether to remove old sole or to glue onto it

2 Select new sole

3 If removing old sole, do so, then grind ready for edging, otherwise grind ready for new sole

4 Glue and assemble

5 Trim with knife and finish on Machine

6 Polish, check and put on shelf.

Deciding whether to remove old or to glue onto; Colour? Of our rand, midsole(eva?) outsole, and the density of these also, Generally its easier to grind 5/6mm off and just glue a new piece of sheeting through, but if the heels are really worn or the sole badly split, or the rand is nasty it may be better to either take the entire sole off and run new edging and pop a new sole on (arch/Dress or eva and cellotop or similar) or grind most of the old sole off just leaving the “rand” and then gluing a unit sole on, Arch, dress etc.

Ones to avoid and things to consider

Eccos are trouble, take a look under the insole to determine how they are made, many are sock lasted, (usually a white fabric instead of the more common pink Texon board) which means the upper is stitched to a piece of fabric just out of sight under the sole, when you grind the old sole off you end up cutting the stitching and then the whole shoe starts to fall apart. Apart from all this the edging we have is not high enough to cover all the mess left from removing the old sole. All that aside, there are some that will come up nicely, so if in doubt explain to the customer that we will have a look at them and call them once we know what we are doing. There is a way of doing these if you must!! Ask Shane J

For soles that are not the same size (i.e. thickness) as the type we will be putting on, measure the height of the heel, length of heel and thickness of half sole. Use these measurements to replicate original sole. E.g. put a micro runner on between rand and sole to make higher; put a wedge in heel to increase height of heel etc.

Pulling Soles Off

Stitched Soles e.g. Hush Puppies, Boat shoes

You can either cut all the threads off from the bottom of the sole, then pull sole off, or you can start by pulling at the sole and cutting the stitches from between sole and upper as you go.

When having to heat a sole to remove it, put the right hand shoe in the oven to heat up while pulling off the left hand shoe. This will help save a lot of time. Put he shoe in the oven so that the heat is going onto the sole and not onto the upper.

Resoling Moccasin-type shoes

Try not to do by removing entire old sole. Because of their curved nature, it sucks to put rand on them and will not always work too well. Usually use rug or something similar (show the customer). Use 4mm all the way through then use 6mm for a heel.

Cut out sole 5mm bigger all round. Be accurate when putting glue on shoe. Assemble as usual then trim with snips or a sharp knife. Finally trim on heel trimmer.

Boat Shoes

Great if you can keep the old rand etc, however a lot of the Steelers are rotten and won,t last very long, so its best to remove the sole completely and then run a new low walled edging around and stitch it on then either glue a unit sole on or run a layer of EVA and then Rug or a K93. Standard one would have Brown edging then Brown EVA 3/4mm then Gum K93

Doc Martens/PVC soles

This usually involves using green topy rug and doing the heels and ¾ soles rather than running a sole right through. Because a ¾ sole comes back so much further than a ½ sole, it prevents the arch becoming too flexible (especially if the wooden shank is broken). When putting the boot onto the ¾ sole it is important to roll it on so that it doesn’t end up too flat.

Keeping existing heel block

Remove sole and heel block carefully, run edging around, run 1 cellotop right through, re attach heel block, do heels.

Sole Stitching

Stitching on the inside – blake stitching – send to Gemmells

Stitching on the outside (outsole) – gritsner.

Resoling Work Boots John Bull Blundstone and other Moulded PU types

Look under the insole as you will find out if it has stitching holding the upper onto the cloth insole, which would indicate that you don’t really want to remove the entire sole, better to grind the existing sole back and glue onto it. To work out how much needs grinding off, line up the new sole you have selected and work it out from there, better to take off to little than to much. The older ones, and some new ones maybe? Will go all melty, cut most of the old sole off especially the heel and then grind flat and glue a K93 or Power unit on, if its too rotten you will have to take the entire old sole off.

To take the entire sole off, use your imagination and do whatever seems easiest at the time, but if all else fails, go around with a big screw driver and dig the sole away from the upper all the way around, and then have a quick go at just pulling the entire sole of, usually best to start at the toe, if that plan isn’t working, cut the heel block off and then cut the sole off, hold the sole with pincers, not too tight or it will tear, and cut with knife while the sole is under tension. Now you can grind off whatever is left, using a scraping action is best, moving the boot toward the grit on the belt, not with it. If the leather still has a wet look, try turning the boot around and grinding the other way for a bit.

Resoling dodgy TPR

4mm ½ sole that goes right back, so that a 6mm heel overlaps it, this reduces the likely hood of it coming undone at the join.

Fishing Boots

Remove old sole - Grind stitches then pull with pincers, only use heat if needed

EVA 6 if eva midsole, then clear glue, grind and wipe back of new soles with thinners.

Kumfs, rotten pu

Kumfs, worn but not rotten pu

Remove old, and grind clean

Run new edging

Put a piece of cellotop all the way through

Build up the heel block to the correct height with EVA

Put 6mm rug on bottom

Ones to avoid and things to consider

RESOLES

Wedge Soles

Where possible 1. Grind 5mm off existing sole and glue a sheeting sole on ie. 5mm pyramid

or cellotop

2. Change to a heel + ½ sole style

H + ½

As opposed to W

If a wedge is unavoidable eg: Rotten Kumfs

Draw dimensions on back of Job Card eg;

1. Cut new Edging, EVA layers to make wedge and New sole

2. Remove old sole entirely

3. Grind ready for edging

4. Glue edging on and then glue first EVA layer on and grind it to a wedge shape

5. Glue next EVA layer on and grind to a wedge shape

6. Glue sole on and trim, Naumkeg and Polish

1. Cut Rand

2. Cut 2 10mm EVA for Wedge

3. Cut Cellotop soles

Watch out for ECCO’s and others that are not worth doing, check under insole before you start and consider how they were manufactured.