Rubber soled shoes

[Arethusa]

The recent thread on rubber shoe protectors (stuff like Topy) has had me wondering about rubber soled shoes. I've seen a lot of comments about Topy "suffocating" the leather, which strikes me as rather odd, especially given that there are rather high end shoes (eg EG, Mantelassi; ok, I really just wanted to write eg EG) with rubber soles. Of course, the process is somewhat different, but I believe both involve cementing a piece of rubber to a piece of leather, which is where the "suffocating" comments come from.

On a related note, given that those rubber soled shoes can be resoled, is it possible to put a real rubber sole on a pair of regular leather soled shoes (ie a real rubber sole, not a protector like Topy)? If so, what's involved?

 

[Arethusa]

Bump?

 

[Tomasso]

Originally Posted by Arethusa

is it possible to put a real rubber sole on a pair of regular leather soled shoes (ie a real rubber sole, not a protector like Topy)? If so, what's involved?

There should be no problem to switch out leather for rubber or vice versa. Any company with a refurbishment program should be able to accommodate the request.

 

[Arethusa]

I take it that it's not something a cobbler can do on his own, then?

 

[kitonbrioni]

Any cobbler can put a rubber sole over or in place of a leather one.