Monthly Archives: November 2007

Just like clothes, few shoes fit perfectly “off the rack”. Most need some tailoring to fit. Do you have an issue with bunions or hammertoes and tight shoe fit? A shoe stretcher is the perfect trick. People will gladly pay to have a single pair of shoes stretched, but you can do dozens of shoes at home easily, safely, and for a lot less money and a lot more fun.

The first thing to determine is what type of shoe stretcher you need. There are stretchers for high heels, stretchers for boots and stretchers for flats. There are shoe stretchers which can raise the toe box, raise the vamp or make the forefoot wider. And don’t forget the nobs, (think Mr. Potato Head), which when perfectly placed, can spot stretch even the tightest area. Now we come to sizes, which range from the tiniest, tightest high heel to the biggest, widest military boot.

Your tools…shoe stretch spray (our favorite is Wiley’s) your shoe stretcher and an uncomfortably tight shoe with a leather upper. Synthetics need not apply.
Spray in the appropriate area, insert the stretcher, twist the handle clockwise and set aside for 24-48 hours. Remove the stretcher, try both shoes on again and see if the stretched shoe now fits. If not, remove, re-insert the stretcher and repeat.

Do you experience heel slippage in your slip on shoe styles (loafers, flats)? Do you have a high arched foot or two different sized feet? If so, you may want to check the vamp length.

The picture above shows two different vamp/tongue lengths on slip on styles of shoes with elastic insets. The brown shoe has a shorter vamp length and the black shoe has a longer vamp length.

For this person the brown pair barely stayed on, because of her very high arch coupled with the short vamp length. The black shoe on the other hand,  made much more surface area contact with the foot (think form fitting), creating a much more secure environment.

This is also important if you have one foot shorter than the other, because the short vamp won’t contact the foot enough to stay on, hence slippage or even falling off…especially if you’re running to catch a cab and you forget to hold the shoe on by gripping with your toes!

It’s seasonably warm in the Bay Area this fall and sandal wearing still abounds. Thanksgiving week someone walked into my office wearing sandals, whose strap was rubbing and irritating the top of her big toe. In spite of her visit being related to something entirely different, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to correct her strangulating strap. If you suffer from this, here’s a surefire fix. Simply unbuckle the offending strap, and secure a 1/8″ thick square of Wiley’s Felt Remedy to the strap underside. A quick re-buckle and problem solved! This trick also works for Mary Jane staps (flats or heels) as well.