Anyone can recommend a good cobbler? I wanted to get my shoes topied. I used to go to the one in ikano. I went there a few months ago and the whole floor was closed due to renovation

Did you ask him to grind a bit of the leather sole to get the rubber to sit flush? Wonder if this would compromise the original welt stitching at the toe area, since the leather that was grinded might go past the channel. Maybe that's why he stitched anyway?

If water gets in, the easiest solution is to stick a new topy on the whole thing. But I guess the whole reason you did all this was that you wanted to walk on leather sole

This post has been edited by RA_2366: Nov 5 2017, 09:02 PM

I did an experiment on a 7 year old Clarks today. Shoe was trash worthy, so I figured I had nothing to lose. Used some Fiebings leather dye.




They came out wearable, as long as the glued sole stays on the shoe.

Used Ranomat. Then I wiped it with my wife's nail polish remover (80% Acetone). AfterI applied the dye, I conditioned the shoe with lexol and polish with starwax.

I'm pretty sure the upper is corrected grain, so I did not expect good result. Quite pleased with the way they turn out. Maybe one day I will have the guts to put patina on one of my better shoes

This post has been edited by RA_2366: Dec 1 2019, 05:27 PM

If they are fairly inexpensive (and you don't wear them anyway), just go for it! You have nothing to lose as long as you don't dive in and try it on an expensive pair.

Start by watching a couple of videos on youtube, then get yourself some Fiebings dye online (I got mine from shopee. Justified to myself that I will use them as edge dressing for my nicer shoes once I'm done with the project). Don't forget brushes, gloves and acetone to strip the shoe.

The overall process was not as difficult as I thought, especially if you are only using 1 dark color. Just make sure you strip the shoes well so that the dye can absorb into the leather. If you are using an alcohol based dye, the color will end up darker than what is printed on the bottle. The color of my dye is "medium brown", but the end result came out burgundy-ish (might not look burgundy in the photo, but I see some red tones under certain lighting). Different leather may react differently to the dye, so just be prepared for a surprise

And make sure you cover your table/working area. It might get messy

This post has been edited by RA_2366: Dec 2 2019, 08:29 PM

For that price, you should also consider Carmina. WJ & co in BSC carries them. Quality is much better than Loake 1880 in my opinion.

The best advise would be to try as many shoes as you can in PLAL / WJ & co and buy whatever fits you best. If you do end up in PLAL, try to aviod the "made in india" stuffs. You can never go wrong with Loake (1880), Cheaneys, or Barkers.

I wouldn't send it to "any" cobbler. In order to make the toe tap flush, the cobbler needs to slice a portion of the original sole. There is a risk that the cobbler might cut too much of the outsole stitching and compromise the integrity of the sole in that area. If a metal toe tap were to be installed, it might not be such a big issue as the screw would make up for the weaker stitching. However, rubber toe taps are typically held by glue. The one in the picture has brass tacks, but they might be decorative since they don't hold as well as threaded screws.

The most proper way to install a flush rubber toe tap on a goodyear welted shoe is:

1) slice off a portion of the leather sole
2) remove old stitching on the toe area and restitch (by hand) using the same hole on the welt
3) glue on the flush rubber toe tap. The rubber portion can easily be repaced when it is worn out since the stitching is not affected when the rubber is removed.

Only cobblers who are competent enough to do a full resole would be able to do the job properly, and I don't think there are any in malaysia. I personally would not bother doing it and go for a full topy instead. Some manufacturers offer a service of installing a metal toe tap, so that is a good alternative if you are buying new shoes.

Having said that, the risk of compromising the stitching on the toe is low, so you might get away with skipping the restitching step. Just keep in mind that there is a risk involved that local cobblers might not be able to fix if they were to make a mistake.

This post has been edited by RA_2366: Apr 9 2020, 01:53 AM