I was carrying my gym bag into my house Saturday and lost a Nike in my driveway. I didn’t find it until Sunday after the sprinkler system had gone off and after it had sat in the sun for a few hours.
I just put my shoes on to make sure the one would be okay for aerobic class in a couple of hours, I wanted to make sure it hadn’t shrunk up or anything. The shoe size seems fine but for some strange reason the bottom has gone hard and smooth and very slippery. I am sitting here sliding both feet on the carpet. The shoe that stayed in my bad is sticky and doesn’t slide at all, the shoe that spent the night outside slides much to easy.
Does anyone have a quick fix for making shoe rubber sticky again?
>^,^<
KITTEN
Coffee, chocolate, men . . . Some things are just better rich.
I think your shoe is hosed, but I’m basing my conclusion on the word of my sixth grade P.E. teacher who was wrong about oh so many things. He used to tell us not to wear our tennis shoes outside where they would get wet and especially not to put them in the dryer because it made the bottom slick instead of “grippy”. He didn’t specifically mention sprinkler systems and sunlight but I’m sure he would have if it had occurred to him.
This was in an era when Converse All-Stars were the ultimate “tennis” shoe (if you could afford them – they were ten bucks!!). I’m sure Nike has upgraded the rubber formula to make it even more fragile in the intervening years.
As for a solution to your problem – Mr. McCarty was silent on that topic. Sandpaper sounds like it’s worth a try. You could put a layer of Shoe Goo on the bottom (it’s black, tarry gunk for repairing running shoes). My brother-in-law uses it to repair his favorite shoes over and over. I guess it works, but it looks terrible.
What the heck – spend the ten bucks and get a new pair of Converse All-Stars!!
“non sunt multiplicanda entia praeter necessitatem”
– William of Ockham
Diane,
Try returning them to the store…the worst they can say is no, and you may get a new pair out of it. I always return items that are defective or that become defective on me- 3 months is not long at all to have a pair of sneakers. Give it a shot. Call the store manager first, explain the deal, then bring them in person to retun them. I always call first when returning something with an unusual problem, as it saves me the trouble of going through the same story over and over.
Let us know what happens
I’m very lucky. The only time I was ever up shit creek, I just happened to have a paddle with me.
–George Carlin
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