Learning how to resole climbing shoes

For anyone interested I wrote a piece on resoling shoes for the first time. Learned a lot and realize now how much work goes into it, but not a ton of resources online on how to do it which was the tricky part. So just thought I'd share it here, any advice on what I could have done better would be appreciated

https://simianrepublic.com/my-first-diy-climbing-shoe-resole-and-what-i-learned/

Cool write up. Any more pics of the rand replacement? I've always wanted to try this. 

Really nice job and write up.

 I made a pair of half lasts for my shoes figuring that I would only be doing rand repairs on the front of the shoes. I haven't tried the lasts yet as I made them well ahead of needing them. I figured I should make the lasts while the shoes had a really good fit to my feet.

Do you think it would be possible to 3d print a last? Love the video! I think the amount of people willing to make a last, and then the ones even capable of doing so are very very few and far between. Yours look amazing!!! Such a skill to be able to shape that by eye. 

Steven Gonzalez wrote:

Cool write up. Any more pics of the rand replacement? I've always wanted to try this. 

Unfortunately no. Repairing the rands kind of gave me the most anxiety so I kind of had tunnel vision for this part and didn't document it all that well. However, I did film some clips of the process which is in the video I put up. You should definitely try it out, it's not hard at all, just a little finicky and nervous the first time. Also, I recycled the rands off another pair of old Five Tens that I blew a hole into. If you have any questions let me know!

Victor Creazzi wrote:

Really nice job and write up.

 I made a pair of half lasts for my shoes figuring that I would only be doing rand repairs on the front of the shoes. I haven't tried the lasts yet as I made them well ahead of needing them. I figured I should make the lasts while the shoes had a really good fit to my feet.

Half lasts should be all you need for a half sole in my opinion, majority of climbing shoes don't need a full resole as I see it. Just use the half last and stuff the rest of the shoe with newspaper. Honestly not a bad idea too since you'll be able to resole different sizes of the same shoe as well. A complete last is nice to look at though...

panda bear wrote:

Half lasts should be all you need for a half sole in my opinion, majority of climbing shoes don't need a full resole as I see it. Just use the half last and stuff the rest of the shoe with newspaper. Honestly not a bad idea too since you'll be able to resole different sizes of the same shoe as well. A complete last is nice to look at though...

Yeah, your lasts are much cooler looking than mine. I made my half lasts with 2 layers of 1/2" baltic birch plywood. I shaped the bottom piece then bonded to the top piece to it before shaping it. It was much easier than I expected, and it seemed like doing it that way made the fitting much simpler. I was prepared to build up any areas that I over sanded with body putty but I ended up only using it to bond the layers together.

 Where did you get your rand material?

Jeremy McCormick wrote:

Do you think it would be possible to 3d print a last? Love the video! I think the amount of people willing to make a last, and then the ones even capable of doing so are very very few and far between. Yours look amazing!!! Such a skill to be able to shape that by eye. 

Thank you for the kind words, I definitely spent way too much time on the lasts though and the video doesn't show the mistakes I made on them, although I address them in the article. Namely, sanding too much off the heels which I then fixed with duct tape and getting both lasts to be as close to identical as possible.

I think 3D printing lasts would be a terrific idea. Definitely saves on time and mirroring the lasts would be a breeze. There are a couple resole videos I've watched where they were able to make a 3D printed last, and it looked great.

Victor Creazzi wrote:

Yeah, your lasts are much cooler looking than mine. I made my half lasts with 2 layers of 1/2" baltic birch plywood. I shaped the bottom piece then bonded to the top piece to it before shaping it. It was much easier than I expected, and it seemed like doing it that way made the fitting much simpler. I was prepared to build up any areas that I over sanded with body putty but I ended up only using it to bond the layers together.

 Where did you get your rand material?

Very interesting, mind sharing a picture of them?

And I recycled some rand rubber off an old pair of Five Ten Aleons. Although, I'm looking to buy some resole rubber and randing rubber from Unparallel soon

Half lasts.

Nice! Ive resoled a few shoes at this point and my main takeaways are

• CLEAN! getting the old glue off is paramount to the new glue sticking well. Thinner and acetone work well, with appropriate amounts of brushing. 
  • If they aren't clean its easy to get a pair that looks good, hold up well for a session or two, and then completely peels apart.
• Last - They need to be pretty well made, no major gaps around the toes will do. You need to be able to apply a significant amount of pressure (I hammered mine on and built a home-made press)
  • I made some lasts the same exact way you did, I also tried 3d printing some but they are kind of a PITA to make the CAD files and then print, find out its too tight, teak, print, too small, tweak print. But its definitely achievable.

Acquiring rubber was the most difficult part, most places won't sell to you unless you have an LLC. 

James M wrote:

Nice! Ive resoled a few shoes at this point and my main takeaways are

• CLEAN! getting the old glue off is paramount to the new glue sticking well. Thinner and acetone work well, with appropriate amounts of brushing. 
  • If they aren't clean its easy to get a pair that looks good, hold up well for a session or two, and then completely peels apart.
• Last - They need to be pretty well made, no major gaps around the toes will do. You need to be able to apply a significant amount of pressure (I hammered mine on and built a home-made press)
  • I made some lasts the same exact way you did, I also tried 3d printing some but they are kind of a PITA to make the CAD files and then print, find out its too tight, teak, print, too small, tweak print. But its definitely achievable.

Acquiring rubber was the most difficult part, most places won't sell to you unless you have an LLC. 

 

Great tips James, how did you build a press? I'm trying to think of a way of making one myself

As for getting the rubber I agree

panda bear wrote:

Great tips James, how did you build a press? I'm trying to think of a way of making one myself

Panda, I built a manual vacuum press for regluing delaminating soles (5.10 approach shoes bought new 6-7 years ago, but falling apart due to aging synthetic midsoles)

https://www.instructables.com/make-a-manual-vacuum-pump-for-under-%2420-by-convert/

which works pretty well. I got the idea from vacuum presses friends use for building skis. I used food vacuum sealing bags and heat sealed the shoes inside of them. These bags are a lot cheaper than more “professional” solutions.

if I was going to do this more often, I would use an electric pump instead:

https://www.instructables.com/convert-a-tire-inflator-type-air-compressor-into-a/

The commercial presses that I see on the you tube videos look more like they could be built with a hot water bottle. Positive pressure may be easier to implement and one could possibly go over 1 atmosphere of pressure.

I've used arced pieces of steel plate inside and outside of the shoe and c clamps which is nice for leaving the clamps on over night or longer. I'm thinking of adding 1/2" rubber under the outer piece to help get pressure up around the outer edges.

Panda, I was thinking that the wrapping with bicycle tubes was a good idea. Were you not happy with that? Maybe not enough pressure? It's probably better for putting pressure on the edges. Maybe a combination of the tubes and clamping plates would be good.

Terry E wrote:

Panda, I built a manual vacuum press for regluing delaminating soles (5.10 approach shoes bought new 6-7 years ago, but falling apart due to aging synthetic midsoles)

https://www.instructables.com/make-a-manual-vacuum-pump-for-under-%2420-by-convert/

which works pretty well. I got the idea from vacuum presses friends use for building skis. I used food vacuum sealing bags and heat sealed the shoes inside of them. These bags are a lot cheaper than more “professional” solutions.

if I was going to do this more often, I would use an electric pump instead:

https://www.instructables.com/convert-a-tire-inflator-type-air-compressor-into-a/

Thank you for the tip Terry, this looks like a great idea. I would probably make the electric pump

Victor Creazzi wrote:

Panda, I was thinking that the wrapping with bicycle tubes was a good idea. Were you not happy with that? Maybe not enough pressure? It's probably better for putting pressure on the edges. Maybe a combination of the tubes and clamping plates would be good.

Clamping plates with the tubes sound like a good idea I should have tried that. And the tubes worked well enough for the job but yes I want something with more pressure, and it's difficult to tell if the pressure was spread out evenly too

rock climbing wrote:

Congratulations. You find the inner spirit animal of the Anasazi, clown shoes. Those lasts are more for clown shoes lasts then for climbing

Here is some tips for you. Use the other end of the grinder. That way all the stuff you grind goes down not in your face. Or reverse the rotation on the motor.

The half last is better but you want make it the whole length of the shoe that way you can press the sole and the last not slide back.

The even better option is to buy a shoe tree and shape it like your shoe. 

Haha they are very much like clown shoes, I outlined the lasts based on the Mocc's sole and yeah that's how they turned out

And great tips on using the grinder I'll bear them in mind the next time

panda bear wrote:

Thank you for the tip Terry, this looks like a great idea. I would probably make the electric pump

I hope you post some photos and results, if you end up trying out a vacuum press. I stuffed the shoes tightly with paper before putting them in the vacuum bags and pressing them.

panda bear wrote:

Clamping plates with the tubes sound like a good idea I should have tried that. And the tubes worked well enough for the job but yes I want something with more pressure, and it's difficult to tell if the pressure was spread out evenly too

This idea worked really well.

What grit sandpaper do you use?