Women's shoes that can be repaired

[AMandM]

Today I dripped off my husband's dress shoes at the cobbler, to have part of the uppers re-stitched. He bought this pair almost 10 years ago, and they have lasted this long because they can be repaired: the heels and soles can be replaced when they're worn down, the uppers can be restitched. It made me think--I've never owned a pair of shoes like that. Do they even exist for women? Any brands to recommend?

[AuspiciousEight]

Posting to follow.

My wife has a pair of Doc Martens. That's probably the closest thing she has that could be repairable...(Maybe..? 🤔).

They are heavy though, so she never wears them.

[Daley]

Doc Martens are unrepairable garbage now. If you're looking for the modern equivalent of oldskool Docs, NPS/Solovair is carrying on that tradition, as they were the original company and manufacturer that was responsible for manufacturing Doc Martens up until the 1990's, and are the actual people responsible for the legacy of durability that the current owners of Docs is cashing out on. Note: not all of the Solovair catalogue can be resoled, but most of it can, IIRC. It's worth noting their catalogue isn't ALL boots. There are loafers, monk shoes, and mary janes as well. I want to say it's only their sneakers you can't resole, but don't quote me on that.

This said, not a lot of cobblers in the US are willing/capable of resoling Solovairs (or older Docs), due to the PVC outsole being melted on to the Goodyear welt... unless you let them completely redo the welt and go with more traditional soles after that, but that switchover can cost almost as much as the initial shoes, and there aren't a lot of cobblers left willing to take on such a large job anymore.

This said, if you want to know who makes the best repairable shoes today in the styles you're after, maybe just ask your local cobbler for recommendations when you go back to pick the other shoes up. After all, you already have a cobbler you trust, why not ask the very people who would be doing said repairs what shoes they would recommend?

[hooplady]

I've had good quality loafers re-soled and re-heeled, maybe Cole-Haan? But it's been years since I owned anything like that. Mephisto used to be famous for offering a full refurbishment program but my info might be out of date.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

I have a pair of Tory Burch wedges that my husband bought me for our 1st anniversary, which was 19 years ago. I've worn them A LOT. I've had the heels redone several times at a cobbler & had the insoles replaced as well.

[Moustachienne]

Today I dripped off my husband's dress shoes at the cobbler, to have part of the uppers re-stitched. He bought this pair almost 10 years ago, and they have lasted this long because they can be repaired: the heels and soles can be replaced when they're worn down, the uppers can be restitched. It made me think--I've never owned a pair of shoes like that. Do they even exist for women? Any brands to recommend?

A good cobbler can repair almost any shoe, women's included. The best thing is to have the heels and soles replaced before they are worn down past the point of no return. I knew a women who had Topy sole protectors put on before she did any walking. I always changed out those slippery plastic heels for rubber heels, back when I still wore women's dress shoes. :)  Now I wear ankle boots and have them reheeled every year and resoled maybe every two years, depending on how much I've worn them down.  I currently have Ecco boots that are notorious for being tricky to resole but I found a specialty cobbler to take them on and so far so good.  All this to say that while women's shoes can be tougher than men's shoes to repair because they may be more flimsy to begin with, it's really worth checking with a cobbler.

[Metalcat]

Today I dripped off my husband's dress shoes at the cobbler, to have part of the uppers re-stitched. He bought this pair almost 10 years ago, and they have lasted this long because they can be repaired: the heels and soles can be replaced when they're worn down, the uppers can be restitched. It made me think--I've never owned a pair of shoes like that. Do they even exist for women? Any brands to recommend?

A good cobbler can repair almost any shoe, women's included. The best thing is to have the heels and soles replaced before they are worn down past the point of no return. I knew a women who had Topy sole protectors put on before she did any walking. I always changed out those slippery plastic heels for rubber heels, back when I still wore women's dress shoes. :)  Now I wear ankle boots and have them reheeled every year and resoled maybe every two years, depending on how much I've worn them down.  I currently have Ecco boots that are notorious for being tricky to resole but I found a specialty cobbler to take them on and so far so good.  All this to say that while women's shoes can be tougher than men's shoes to repair because they may be more flimsy to begin with, it's really worth checking with a cobbler.

This. Most of my leather shoes have been worn extensively for years and are maintained by an.excellenr cobbler. There's not a ton they can't fix unless the shoes have a lot of cheaper plastic parts that break.

[AMandM]

Thanks, all!
I think my problem is that I haven't bought shoes carefully enough, with repair in mind.

My everyday shoes are usually built on a one-piece flexible rubber sole, and I don't think those can be resoled--there's no bottom layer that can be removed and replaced. So I should look instead for replaceable soles and heels.
My last pair of ankle boots could have been resoled, but before that was necessary the uppers came away from the sole. The cobbler couldn't reattach them because they were just glued on, and the leather had torn along the "seam" due to wear, I guess. That is an issue of general quality of the materials, which is hard for me to judge. Other shoes I've had from that brand (Josef Seibel) have lasted much longer.

[aloevera1]

I have repaired leather Ecco shoes successfully. Re-soling is easy for any competent cobbler.

[use2betrix]

All of our nice boots are the red wing heritage line. Their boots still made in the US. My wife has brown and black pairs of the Clara model. I absolutely love them, they’re beautiful.

All the boots in both men’s and women’s can have their soles replaced. The boots will probably last longer than me. They’re expensive, but the quality is top notch.

[kite]

I’ve had all kinds of women’s shoes resolved.
High heels, although I don’t wear those anymore, flats with a spongy rubber sole, loafers, lace-up oxfords and lug-soled boots. The thing about the flats is that the new sole isn’t going to perfectly match the old one.

The only ones I toss when worn-out are sneakers.