I actually have two uses:
1. rock climbing shoes - (a) some early signs of de-lamination of toe sole from the rand; (b) side rand starting to have wear/scraped off
2. trekking shoes (Teva with 'Spider Rubber')- front part of sole separated halfway. would like to maintain its waterproof properties, so having it sewn is not an option

which would provide better adhesiveness? Both rubbers are relatively soft & sticky since these are special grip shoes. No shoe repair shop in my country has materials & skills to fix rock climbing shoes. And normal contact cement won't hold the fix for the shoes' use.

• I think 5.10 had a repair kit before using Barge Cement (yellow tube, instead of the blue one), but the reviews say that it didn't quite work.

The trick is finding an adhesive that has a bonding strength WITH ALSO being flexible after it sets. Shoe goo and barge are both like this. There was this one really gnarly adhesive I used in highschool that looked kinda like peanut butter and still stayed flexible, but I can't remember the name of it :/ I'd say go in to a building supply store and ask some questions.

Well, Barge's Cement requires you to heat it up after letting it set. Most bad reviews come from folks assuming it works as a contact cement, when really, it needs that heat.

Shoe goo is pretty good for patching holes, but its a really lousy glue.

I have checked hardware stores here. We don't have much adhesive options except for contact cement, silicon fillers, super glue & the traditional epoxy. So I went to the net and there seems to be both good & bad experiences on both products. Maybe due to not properly using the adhesive as instructed.