Stretching shoes?

[daimbardiva]

I bought myself some leather, flat, mary jane style shoes in the Clarks sale at Christmas time - was v chuffed as I'd been coveting them for a while and got them at a good price. They fitted fine when I tried them on. However, I wore them for the first time last week, and they really hurt my feet across the bridge - I've been wearing them round the house with thick socks to try and stretch them a bit, but any other suggestions for how to do this, or how to soften them up a bit?

I'm kind of gutted, as they are such a sensible choice of shoe - wasn't expecting this problem at all!!!

Fill a bag with water. put that bag inside another bag just to make sure.
Put the bag into the shoe. put it in the freezer.

The water expands with freezing so stretches the leather.

I have yet to try this myself but have seen this tip many times

Ha! Mamaz0n beat me to it. Was also going to post that tip and I haven't tried it either!

My kindy local shoemender does stretching for me at a very modest price. Seems to work.

You can buy a stretching spray which you spray on inside of the show then wear them.

I like the freezer idea though - not heard that before!

I'm a bit scared of the freezer one tbh, but found a wikihow site which suggested wearing them with thick socks and heating them with a hairdryer and flexing...so have been doing that (no, don't feel silly at all...but do have very warm/slightly numb feet!) If that doesn't work I'll approach my kindly local shoemender.

Thanks for input :)

The freezer thing sounds ridiculous. Heating the shoe with a hairdryer won't do much either.

Many years ago, when I used to work for Pied a Terre, I learnt that the only real way to stretch a shoe across the vamp is to steam it over a hot kettle and with a broom handle or your hands, stretch the shoe, then repeat and repeat.

Stretching spray is a big con and does nothing. Shoemaker's who offer a stretching service invariably use the kettle method.

:)

Erm well the stretching spray worked for me.........

Stretching spray is nothing but a mixture of surgical spirit and water in a spray bottle. You spray it inside the shoe and then wear it while it's still damp. It does work to a degree.

You can buy shoe stretchers- like this. Think you gradually expand it over a period of time.