Can my sandals be reparired?

August 25, 2018 10:02 AM

By beloved Sole Cork Flip Flops are starting to come apart. What's the best way to repair them near Boston? I can't seem to find a replacement.

I see this tear getting slowly worse, but I have no idea how to get them repaired or if it's something I could do myself.

Nearly the same item is available in their Canadian store, but they won't ship to the US, and the closest option in the US store isn't available in my size (12).

Even eBay doesn't seem to have the ones I want and the closest item on Amazon has reviews that make it sound quite different and if they run large, the size that may be appropriate for me is unavailable.

posted by Cogito to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (7 answers total)

I'd give this stuff a shot.
posted by raider at 10:33 AM on August 25, 2018

I think you can just hand-stitch that bit back together. You're going to need some strong, fairly thick thread, a chunky needle (a curved one might help), and maybe a thimble or some pliers to help push the needle in if it's hard work. The important thing is to use quite wide stitches, so you don't stitch too close to the frayed part.

I used to fix tears like this with with dental floss when I was a poor student, and it worked pretty well. Of course, you can probably stretch to something that matches better, colour-wise.
posted by pipeski at 10:52 AM on August 25, 2018 [1 favorite]

Is it just the top, cloth layer that is tearing? Because to fix that, you just need a sturdy needle and thread; it looks like twill. But it looks like the underneath foam(?) is tearing too and that would be more difficult. I think you would need some kind of flexible goop to fill in the gap before stitching the cloth layer.

Another option would be to use a "tube" of thin leather (something sturdier than cloth) to bridge the gap. First you'd wrap it around the strap and whipstitch together. Then you'd stitch each end of the tube down, on top and underneath.I
posted by TWinbrook8 at 1:29 PM on August 25, 2018

Response by poster: The strap is tearing all the way through. And I'm not handy with stitching, so I'd probably need to take it somewhere. Any suggestions for such repairs in the Boston area?
posted by Cogito at 2:59 PM on August 25, 2018

That Canadian site you linked to says that they do ship to the US, if you wanted to buy new ones rather than repair your current ones.
https://yoursole.com/ca/help/shipping
posted by sunflower16 at 4:40 PM on August 25, 2018

Response by poster: I can't seem to figure out how to ship to the US from the Canadian site. The address form only has the Canadian provinces, and if I switch the menu bar dropdown to "United States", then my cart becomes empty.
posted by Cogito at 6:56 AM on August 26, 2018

Best answer: There is Savas shoe repair shop in Davis Square, Somerville, next to the Starbucks. Old school, longstanding establishment. I went in there once to have a sole replaced on some boots, and the tech there was friendly. He talked me out of doing the sole repair, and to wear them for another season - which in my book was a positive sign, since he was willing to turn away business. But, I can't speak directly to his work.

Your question states that Sole won't ship to the US - and when I try to use the online webform, there is no Country option available - only Canadian provinces are listed. I can't complete the order online and ship to the USA.

However, per their faq they do ship outside of Canada. I am wondering if their is a problem with their online ordering system.

I would consider reaching out to their customer service team to see if you can order over the phone and ship to MA. Also, sending them pictures might net you repair advice or a discount code on a replacement. Gushing about how much you love their product is consistently nice to hear at a company.

Here is the phone number, and email for their customer service team: 1 [phone] and [e-mail] and best luck.
posted by enfa at 9:13 AM on August 26, 2018