Thought I’d write a short post in the Tips & Tricks category for a change. As most women, I love nice shoes and can’t keep my hands of Mr Louboutin’s creations :).
However, I think all nice shoes should be worn frequently irrespective of occasion or weather, and that unfortunately is poison to Louboutin’s beautiful red soles. A night of dancing or a couple of outings will wear out the red leather under the ball of your foot. And once the red color is worn through your soles don’t look hot at all.
Now there are a couple of things you could do. If you have your ways through Paris you can stop by Minuit Moins Sept at 10, Passage Véro Dodat, 75001 Paris.
http://www.minuitmoins7.com/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Minuit-Moins-7/136252906418045
They are an upscale cobbler with exclusive rights from the Christian Louboutin enterprise to replace the red leather sole on Louboutin shoes. This will set you back approx $240 per pair, but the soles are then brand new and the shoes look exactly as new. The only problem is that you’ll face the same issue again. Take them out dancing for a night and your $240 is down the drain… 🙁
Alternatively, you can have them apply a custom-made Louboutin rubber sole to the ball area at approx. $50 per pair. I like this option more as it gives you longevity, but personally I don’t like the way they apply the rubber. As you can see from their website, they will apply the rubber over the entire sole. This means that the “edge” of the rubber is slightly visible from the side, and it looks like you have an additional layer under your shoe. Also, personally I’m not a fan of the obtrusive Louboutin branding of the rubbers.
So hence I tend to go with my own semi-DIY variant (pictured below). What you do is you get on Ebay and search for “Red Vibram”. You’ll find a lot of people selling red Vibram soles “for Louboutins”. Be mindful, however, to buy the special 1 millimeter thick version, not the regular 1.8mm variant.
Then you take the shoes to a local cobbler, with the following instructions:
1) if possible, choose a female cobbler as she is more likely to understand the delicacy of what she is dealing with 🙂
2) she will first cut the Vibram’s to fit the under the ball of the foot, leaving approx 2-3 millimeters to each edge.
3) she will then sand or strip away a thin layer of the red sole where the Vibram patches will sit (yes, she will be cutting in your red soles, better you are not there to see it).
4) She will glue on the Vibrams applying pressure so that they attach snugly.
And voilà, as a result, the Vibram’s will “sink into” the soles so that they are completely invisible from the side of the shoes. Also, as opposed to the patches the French cobbler uses, your Vibram is thin and kind of shiny and will be nearly unnoticeable even if you are sitting with your soles visible. However, the Vibram’s will be protruding just so much that the weight of your body rests on the Vibram patches while the bordering 2-3mm red leather sole remains intact.
So with these you can enjoy your red soles much longer. It is also easy to wipe down the Vibram patches with a wet cloth so they stay nice and red.
Here’s a sample of what a pair of mine looks like:
Hope you enjoy the post and good luck with your DIY project!