I had my beloved pair of Prospector boots resoled not too long ago, and while the people at the local shoe-repair place did a pretty good job of it, there’s one problem. When I walk around the tiled hallways at my workplace, they squeak. Loudly. Embarassingly so. It seems to be worst when they’re damp, but not wet, and the squeaking doesn’t happen when they’re dry. It also seems to be a function of the type of tile — the squeaking doesn’t occur on certain floors of the building, but unfortunately the floor I work on has the squeaky tile in its hallways.
How can I keep this from happening? Is there some kind of compound that can be applied to the soles to stop the squeaking? Or should I resign myself to having everyone up & down the hallway know that I’m coming?
(And to forestall the obvious comment: I suppose that I could bring in an extra pair of shoes and wear them indoors instead of the aforementioned boots, but it doesn’t really bother me enough to justify the extra hassle…)
If the squeak is coming from between the rubber sole and the surface of the floor, it will probably go away once you have scuffed your brand new soles a little bit. I can’t think of anything that would accelerate this more effectively than simply walking around in the boots on concrete or other abrasive surfaces. Taking a belt sander to the bottom of your newly soled beloved boots seems like kind of a waste.
It seems the problem is motion between the outsole and insole of the shoes causing the objectionable squeak.
You may be able to resolve the problem with some Neatsfoot Oil, available at outdoors shops and better shoe stores. The hard part is getting the lubricant in between the layers of leather. Were I in your shoes (no pun intended) I’d use an insulin syringe, but I have doctor and nurse friends, and you may not.
Hopefully this will help you get in touch with your troubled sole. (Couldn’t resist)
My shoes squeek on smooth hard floors too when damp. Brand new ones as well as those so old they had holes worn in the tops. There was no amount of breaking in that stopped the noise.
I found there are two things to do: either keep the shoe soles wet or get them dry. The former I’ve done by splashing a little water from the fountain onto the floor and stamping around in it. Unfortunately this only lasts for a couple dozen steps before the water gets mostly worn off (I think this would also happen to anything you applied to the sole to prevent sqeeking). Drying the bottom is pretty tough as there are all kinds of weird surfaces for water to cling to. Alas, I just have to wait until the water evaporates away.
Some of my boots squeak terribly at auto parts shops. Seems like they all use the same floor finish that interacts in a squeaky way with my soles. And it’s just auto parts shops. No squeaks at the grocery store, or at work.
For squeaks inside the boots (as in, they squeak when walking across carpet) put some foot powder or talc in the boots. With time, and another sprinkle each time you put them on, the powder will hopefully get to the squeaking areas and stop the noise. It’s not a permanent fix, though. Go a couple wearings without re-powdering, and they’ll resume squeaking.
Reviving this because I dont see the solution yet. Its not the shoes, its the way ppl walk in them. My DH makes his rubber soled sneakers squeak by stopping short and pivoting. Its extremelyyyyyy annoyingggggg. To the point that I want to throw the damn things out the door. Or put carpeting throughout the house instead of tile. No one else does this, just him, in the house. :mad:
Not sure if this helps, but I had a new pair of shower that would squeak when walking on hard surfaces. Turned out that the removable insole would slide and squeak. I fixed it by rubbing hand lotion on the bottom of the insoles.
It could be the way I walk, but I have had more than one pair of shoes that squeaked only when wet and only on some floors. Not on other floors and never when dry.
