It’s wise to get the soles and heels of your shoes repaired before they wear too thin. Ideally a neat little tell-tale hole will appear in the centre of your soles which is the signal for a shoe repair and a visit to the cobbler – before you start getting wet socks. However when very thin leather soles will allow some water to permeate through in very wet conditions. If you do walk a little off centre then wear may be concentrated on the outside edges of your soles.
All traditional Goodyear welted shoes, in which Tricker, Sanders, Barker and Loake specialize, have an inch wide leather welt which runs around the outside of their shoes and boots between the upper leather and the sole. It is onto this strip of leather to which the sole is stitched. If excessive wear occurs on the outside edges of the sole and wear starts to cut into the welt itself then the subsequent repair may prove rather more expensive. This is because either the entire welt may require replacement or significant sections of it. This normally requires hand stitching which many cobblers these days are reluctant or insufficiently trained to do. So do keep an eye on how your soles and heels are wearing and if the soles are getting very thin then do get them repaired before damage to the welt occurs.
Really good cobblers are hard to find these days. However if you work in central London you can utilize our central London shoe repair collection service. Our price of £58 includes either a half leather stitched rubber or leather sole and heel replacement along with courier collection from and return to your office. We endeavour to return repaired shoes within 5 working days. Do email repairs@bradshawandlloyd.com for further information on our repair service.
