Looking for wooden shoe stretchers to slightly widen shoes. Shoes fit fine lengthwise but as my feet swell during the day by the afternoon the sides of my toes are getting squeezed and rubbed sore. Cheapest I could find were around $20 for a pair on ebay. I don't really trust the small plastic ones that just widen the toe area and all the other ones stretch the shoe lengthwise which isn't the direction I'm looking at.
Shoe Stretchers
Lniyiaw on 26/01/2016 - 14:52
Comments
can't imagine this actually working
the ice would always take the path of least resistance - ie it would expand into the open space, not push against the actual shoe
do you have a local olde schoole leathere shoee shoppe? ie a proper old world leather shoe person type thing - they would be able to stretch a shoe for sure
Man I haven't seen one of those shops for years. Never even crossed my mind to look for one but something tells me finding them would be harder than finding actual stretchers.
i went to the catch of the day warehouse clearance and bought some Globe leather shoes. i didnt realise until i got home i had bought US size 11 which equates to Australian size 10. i usually wear Aus 10.5 - 11 so they were too small.
found a recommendation online to stretch using bags of water in the freezer. worked like a charm.
i used two freezer bags in each shoe in case one only would leak. put them in the shoe empty and filled the entire toe up to the top of the ankle. tied the bag on themselves like a ballon with a bit of air to allow for expansion. stood them toe down in the freezer over night and took the ice out without letting it melt at all.
was able to put them on after the first try but they were still tight so did them again a couple of days later. they are probably 10.5s atm and i might do it one more time or let them streatch the last bit with normal wear.
also the key kiosk shoe repair guy at the shopping center said he'd stretch them for $30 and they'd be about 1/2 a size bigger. i did it with ice instead because i'd only spent $30 in the first place.
Not that Ive tried this, but Ive seen where people have filled up ziplock bags of water and placed them into the shoes and stuck them into the freezer over night. The water expands as it turns into ice and widens the shoe. If you do try this, I would have the bags near the areas you only want to widen. :)