What to do with old shoes?

CelticRambler

As a fully paid-up member of the "never throw anything out because it will come in useful some day" club, I have a large bag of old shoes waiting for that day. Unfortunately, despite all my creative efforts, they stubbornly refuse to come in useful for anything. :mad:

So while dead rucksacks have donated their straps and buckles to worthy causes, numerous mouse-nibbled articles of clothing have been repurposed as patches and decor, tonnes of plastic have been trimmed and shaped and fitted into holes of all kinds, these friggin shoes just sit there, year after year after year ...

I do not need "interesting" flower pots, which seems to be the Internet's favourite only suggestion (as of yesterday's inventory, I have approximately 500 flowerpots of various "interestingness" and not enough plants to put in them) and they're gone well beyond any hope of repair, so "charitable donation" would just be a cop out. :rolleyes:

But there must be something, someone somewhere has done with the component parts that I can use as inspiration. Is that someone here?

1hnr79jr65

what type of materials are the shoes made from, type of shoes and how much material so suggestions can be given ?

CelticRambler

Ordinary mens' shoes and hybrid "sort of boots but not really" ; probably some trainer-type shoes too. Mostly leather uppers and synthetic soles. Not sure how many - somewhere between ten and fifty (think there may be another bag in the garage, and am waiting for SonNo.1 to come home at Christmas and excavate whatever's still buried in his room :pac: )

1hnr79jr65

for leather shoes my suggestion is to cut away leather and make forearm protectors for archers. Cut away the soles, shave an angle on them and use for door stops.

Jellybaby1

OP, I understand where you're coming from, I have manky old trainers belonging to my son which I hoarded needlessly for over 10 years, and I'm really sorry, but your comments did make me chuckle! Sour Lemonz, your suggestions don't float my boat I'm afraid. I already have door stops but they won't be used over the winter and as for making forearm protectors, I met a few archers from a club recently and they seemed to be well kitted out without any help from me. I think the trainers have to go to the dump I'm afraid!

CelticRambler

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

I'm really sorry, but your comments did make me chuckle!

Well that's something positive at least! :pac:

I do have a need for some door (and window) stops, so will look into that; I also have an archer in the family (the same SonNo.1) but he has all the arm-protection that he needs.

Over the years, though, I've been wondering if there'd be some kind of leather-craft to which these small pieces would lend themselves. Either that, or find a way to re-build the shoes on new soles. For the most part, the uppers are in reasonable-ish condition - it's the soles that are in bits (too much dancing! :cool: ) Then again, I don't really have time to learn cobbling ...

New Home

Would you bring them to a cobbler and see what s/he says? Some may be salvageable, others maybe not so much.

Otherwise, making keyrings or belts?

Jellybaby1

Key rings is a good idea, but looking at our shoes, the bits would only make belts big enough for pixies! They really are in crummy condition.

CelticRambler

New Home wrote: »

Would you bring them to a cobbler and see what s/he says?

Few and very far between in this part of the world. Clogs were the traditional footwear here, and then proper boots. Shoes were for people with notions, who ordered them from Paris.

Jellybaby1

CelticRambler wrote: »

Few and very far between in this part of the world. Clogs were the traditional footwear here, and then proper boots. Shoes were for people with notions, who ordered them from Paris.

That's hilarious!

New Home

Sell them all to Dr. Scholl's.

Aint Eazy Being Cheezy

Tie the laces together and lob them across overhead power lines.

CelticRambler

Aint Eazy Being Cheezy wrote: »

Tie the laces together and lob them across overhead power lines.

Don't have any of them either! They were getting struck by lightning too often, so they've all been buried.

I suppose I could try lobbing them onto the new turbines that have grown in the field opposite ... :rolleyes:

looksee

I've done my share of salvaging and repurposing, and I am a devil for saving things that might be useful, but shoes? No. Manky, not aesthetically pleasing and the fabrics are too glued and tortured to re-use. Bin 'em.

Rolllo

strip down the leather if it's decent looking, wash it, oil it and cut it up into shapes and strips. Make some jewellery/pins/keyrings/etc. Cant think of much else you'd do with shoe leather unless you've got an industrial sewing machine.

kadman

Are the leather shoes, all leather??

CelticRambler

No, leather uppers only. I think all of the soles would be synthetic.

New Home

Rolllo wrote: »

strip down the leather if it's decent looking, wash it, oil it and cut it up into shapes and strips. Make some jewellery/pins/keyrings/etc. Cant think of much else you'd do with shoe leather unless you've got an industrial sewing machine.

Chew toys for dogs? For the uppers only, though.

CelticRambler

I fished a few of them out during the week, and most of the leather uppers are in good or very good condition - just detached from the soles, or the soles are destroyed.

Ah ... I'll leave them a while longer and see if the find a role in some lateral thinking! Might do some sample dismantling at some point. Maybe frame their component parts and sell it as modern art.

Graces7

hmmm... Not a problem I have as I only ever have one pair of shoes, plus wellies, and they will outlive me!

Jellybaby1

Had to come back to this thread after seeing this. Bless my Sole!! Its 26 mins long so scoot through it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qP74T9CwbBg

New Home

My uncle was a cobbler, and I used to love watching him work when I was a child, it was fascinating. He used to fix shoes in that state, too, but he says that in the last 15 years or so shoe soles can't be replaced any more - not the leather ones, the rubber ones. He says that they're moulded and fused around the uppers, and that the "new" uppers aren't shaped in the right way to take normal, old-fashioned soles. On top of that, the polyurethane (sp?) in the rubber degrades with heat and sunlight and starts to melt and becomes sticky, so you end up having to throw out an otherwise perfectly good pair of shoes. If the rubber sole gets detached, there's no glue that will stick it back on and that will keep it there. Now, I'm not talking about the thin layer of rubber that covers soles, I'm talking about those soles (like in runners, but not only) that are made entirely of a rubber-like material.

OP, if it's of any use, I saw recycled leather bookmarks around, they're thin to medium strips of material with a tassel attached to it.

CelticRambler

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

Had to come back to this thread after seeing this. Bless my Sole!! Its 26 mins long so scoot through it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qP74T9CwbBg

Arrgh, Jellybaby1 - at the very end of this year, I didn't need proof that maybe (some day) I could do something useful with mine! :pac:

In any case, I needed the space for the Christmas tree, so the bag was relocated to behind a bedroom door: out of sight, out of mind until such time as I need to put someone in that bedroom.

Jellybaby1

CelticRambler wrote: »

Arrgh, Jellybaby1 - at the very end of this year, I didn't need proof that maybe (some day) I could do something useful with mine! :pac:

In any case, I needed the space for the Christmas tree, so the bag was relocated to behind a bedroom door: out of sight, out of mind until such time as I need to put someone in that bedroom.

:eek: Planning to lock someone in there, Celtic?

CelticRambler

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

:eek: Planning to lock someone in there, Celtic?

No ... not at all ... that kind of guest goes in the old chicken shed! :cool:

lulu1

Take the bull by the horns op or in this case the shoes by the laces and dump/recycle the lot.

I was the same have presses full of clothes shoes and things that I know I would never wear the things were over 10 years old what was i keeping them for ?

Had a clear out before xmas gave 3 full bin liners to charity and another 2 went to recycling.

And I'm not finished yet have to start on my daughters room next only problem is i'll have to get past the pile on the floor before I can reach the wardrobe and that's a task in itself

New Home

CelticRambler wrote: »

Ordinary mens' shoes and hybrid "sort of boots but not really" ; probably some trainer-type shoes too. Mostly leather uppers and synthetic soles. Not sure how many - somewhere between ten and fifty (think there may be another bag in the garage, and am waiting for SonNo.1 to come home at Christmas and excavate whatever's still buried in his room :pac: )

All of this time, and the solution was staring us in the face all along. How about this, CelticRambler?
https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=116878938&postcount=246

CelticRambler

Is it ... art?

Around here, it probably would be considered so! :pac:

New Home

It's definitely "creative". Plus, remember the old nursery rhyme "There was an old toucan who lived in a shoe"?

Garlinge

I keep the laces! always some use for same.

JustAThought

Garlinge wrote: »

I keep the laces! always some use for same.

I have a similar dilema and spotted recently a recycling orange cube thingy in Dunnes carpark and a few civic spaces that will send your old stuff to africa or somewhere for them to repurpose it and make new products from it - my bag of old but good shoes all with fatal flaws (too ugly, too outdated, essential part irreplacable & wrecked) will ALL be going there. Oddly they will accept pairs only but that’s OK.

I saw handbags and tablet covers made from patches of good leather fashioned together by artists in africa & for sale for eye watering prices a while back inna fancy gift shop. It’d be ironic if the bags of old shoes are making their way around the world twice to be remade into stuff for first world markets (again) and sold back to us. But there you have it!

CelticRambler

Sadly, it goes against the grain to think of sending stuff off to the "Third World" so that a bunch of greedy middlemen can make a fortune off the back of some poor African craftsman. I may have watched too many documentaries on the subject of how our Western waste is poisoning the lives of the "not us" people. So for stuff like this (and electrical waste) I need to know exactly what's happening to it.

ValKra

Donations to Simon, if they are non dress shoes?

CelticRambler

As mentioned in other posts, these shoes are no longer fit to wear in any context (other than, perhaps, part of a "homeless guy" costume); and I'm really looking for something that *I* can do with them, instead of foisting them onto someone else.

New Home

You could fill them with compacted clay and use them as bricks for a border for a flower bed (and cover them with something else because they wouldn't be pretty). I've seen houses built with used tyres and compacted earth - your shoes might not last as long, but you wouldn't have to live in them.

Graces7

When I lived on an Outer Orkney island and there were few if any alternatives, the system was to dig a very deep hole or trench. Bury and cover and grow atop.

nigeldaniel

Although I am just speaking for myself I used two old shoes about a year back as bird houses. Used an ingenious ways to attach them to a blackthorn tree. Can't be sure they were used but some ivy is currently hidding them.