I've had four shoes resoled by a London cobbler who came with good reputation. The quality of the new soles, the welt that was replaced, the stitching, the new heel lining are all very good. But somehow for some, mystery reason the new leather insoles just don't stay glued on. The start to peel back even on a first wearing, i.e. as you pull your foot out it becomes unglued and get progressively worse with more wearing and flaps around inside the shoe every time you take it off. This is not just on one shoe, but on four.
They have responded well and we've kept a good relationship. I sent one pair back and they tried, but it peeled back after 2 days. Then I went in person with the four pair to explain at length. Again they really responded well and understood the issue and cared. And shared it with the boss as well. The idea they tried next was to skive (shave) the leather down to make it stick up a bit less and hence less likely to catch anything. So they spent extra time and effort to try and make it work.
But to no avail. Again from the first wearing in the house and also just feeling along the front edge, it is just not sticking and hence peels back.
The shoes are Alden and one Crockett and Jones. My socks are just normal thin socks. And it peels with different socks. I don't sweat any more than anyone else. I haven't had this insole peeling problem in all the decades of wearing shoes.
The cobbler didn't mentioned that any other customers have experienced this. But I suspect they might not bother to discuss or take back to cobbler and probably just accept for what it is. For me it's bothersome and I don't enjoy pushing the insole back into the shoe after every wearing.
Only thing I can think of is the batch of leather they used for the insoles or perhaps the jar of glue. But odd that it happened at different times and with knowledge in advance of the problem.
Also, to complicate matters I will be leaving the UK for Australia so I cannot long iterate and follow up with this cobbler. Furthermore I don't think there's any use it iterating as I do believe they've tried their legitimate best -- just that it doesn't work.
So, any insight into what might be causing this insole peeling? Is it really that hard to get right?
Is there a cobbler anyone can recommend in Sydney who can help? I imagine it would be to pull out the the insoles and replace, but with something that works. And how much would something like that cost?
They have responded well and we've kept a good relationship. I sent one pair back and they tried, but it peeled back after 2 days. Then I went in person with the four pair to explain at length. Again they really responded well and understood the issue and cared. And shared it with the boss as well. The idea they tried next was to skive (shave) the leather down to make it stick up a bit less and hence less likely to catch anything. So they spent extra time and effort to try and make it work.
But to no avail. Again from the first wearing in the house and also just feeling along the front edge, it is just not sticking and hence peels back.
The shoes are Alden and one Crockett and Jones. My socks are just normal thin socks. And it peels with different socks. I don't sweat any more than anyone else. I haven't had this insole peeling problem in all the decades of wearing shoes.
The cobbler didn't mentioned that any other customers have experienced this. But I suspect they might not bother to discuss or take back to cobbler and probably just accept for what it is. For me it's bothersome and I don't enjoy pushing the insole back into the shoe after every wearing.
Only thing I can think of is the batch of leather they used for the insoles or perhaps the jar of glue. But odd that it happened at different times and with knowledge in advance of the problem.
Also, to complicate matters I will be leaving the UK for Australia so I cannot long iterate and follow up with this cobbler. Furthermore I don't think there's any use it iterating as I do believe they've tried their legitimate best -- just that it doesn't work.
So, any insight into what might be causing this insole peeling? Is it really that hard to get right?
Is there a cobbler anyone can recommend in Sydney who can help? I imagine it would be to pull out the the insoles and replace, but with something that works. And how much would something like that cost?
