A friend shared the following information: “The footwear industry creates nearly 1.5 million tons of manufacturing waste annually, not including discarded shoes. Most shoe components aren’t biodegradable and can sit in landfills for centuries. Every time you choose repair, you’re actively reducing landfill waste.”
Thank you! I’ve gotten really hard-core about shoes. If I can avoid ever buying another new pair of shoes again I will be happy. I doubt I’ll be able to avoid buying new manufactured shoes ever again in my life, but it’s a worthy aim.
If I have to buy new shoes, I would love to be able to buy them from a solo artisan or small workshop or something. But, there are so many existing shoes out there already, I really would rather not buy new.
I’m also not willing to own more than three or four pairs of shoes anymore. It’s just too much to keep organized lol and I prefer to go barefoot when I can.
I’m barefoot as much as possible, as long as I don’t have to go to some indoor event. (And sometimes even then!)
When I’m in my neighborhood at the beach, and don’t have any appointments on the other side of the bridge, I can go days without having to put shoes on.
In addition to avoiding buying shoes, especially new shoes, I have taken to experimentally crafting DIY makeshift footwear from discarded shoe components. Some of the experiments have not been successful, but a couple of the recent ones have been!
For example, I glued Xero soles (after the canvas uppers had been worn to shreds) to the upper part of some backless maryjane crocs (after the soles of those had been worn away) that a friend had handed down to me. Creating a weird-looking but serviceable pair of slip-ons. I probably wouldn’t be able to walk far in them, but have covered 3 to 5 miles of errands in them from time to time.
When I say glue, I’m referring to ShoeGoo (of which I purchased a tube to glue the peeling sole back on one of my two pairs of “Sunday best” maryjanes. (Empress, all the way from Australia, highly recommended.)
Another experiment that has been quite successful was making my super-warm knitted booties outdoor-serviceable by gluing a pair of old flip-flop soles onto them. (I just needed them outdoor-serviceable for short distances, like when I step outside to dump the coffee grounds in the garden or wash a dish. But if I had to I could probably walk down the block to the pub or post office in them. ) Both the flip-flops whose souls — er soles — i harvested, and the knitted booties, were items that had been thrown away on the sidewalk. For a couple of years before gluing the flip-flop soles to the knitted booties, I had already made a bunch of sewing repairs to the booties: seams, canvas sole, and so on.
OK, now that I’ve whetted your appetite with these ever-so-enticing descriptions of my DIY shoe derring-do, it would be churlish of me not to show you photos of my efforts.
PS. If you are lucky enough to have a shoe repair shop near you, treat them with all the love they deserve!! Those places tend to be way backed up, but if you’re lucky, as I have been on many occasions, you might end up getting your shoes repaired to a state better than the original.
Also, especially if you’re young, you might consider embarking on shoemaking/shoe repair as a trade.