The irritating side of driving shoes and moccasins.

Hi everybody, i bought my second pair of moccasins last week from car shoe, they are the "antique calf" in brown/moro. The problem is I love driving shoes and moccasins with rubber soles but the damage to the front toe and the back heel is so quick ! Is it naturally a persons walking habit that makes the shoe rub to the floor? Does anybody have tips to avoid it or what to do, because as with the tods I have by the end of this summer these shoes will also become shoes to sinmply go to local grocery store and back with.

I don't know the model in particular you are referencing but you could consider putting in toe and heel taps/cleats to extend the life of these areas.

Sadly, all shoe soles wear down with use, even rubber. If you can get a quality shoe that can be resoled you'll be another step ahead of the game, although most "driving shoes" I've seen are not resolable.

I saw someone try a type of "spray plastic" of some sort, might of had a brush type applicator. This might be a bit odd of a look though, but it would keep your toe and heel around from wearing out. Your heels begin to wear out because your feet are at an angle to press on your brake and accelorate pedals; I've got it especially bad since I use my left for braking and right for accelorating. As for the rubber nubs on the bottom, are you dragging your feet or something? The other thing is that driving shoes aren't really for "walking" so much as "driving." My JLP driving rubber nub soles are holding out just fine, but I am mostly wearing them for driving such as autocross and track (drag racing too but that doesn't count) and not so much for walking around in.

Driving shoes are mostly pure pretention for those with money to burn. Every gas peddle I've ever seen has rubber on top so there is no need for a 'driving shoe' in the first place. These shoes have either pads or pebbles or nubs; whatever you like to call them. If you are walking on anything other than grass to or from your car, you'll wear out pebbles in 1 or 2 days. The pads will last longer but still these shoes are for showing off and not much else. Also, as Harvey stated, most if not all of them are not re-soleable. I have one pair of TOD's that have almost no more pebbles and the heel was shot. I took them to my cobbler to see if he could at least give me a new heel. He said no guarantees so I told him to experiment and lets see. $15 later I have new heels on them.
My cobbler basically ground them down to match the shape of the original heels. So far they are holding (glued) but wehen the soles give out, they're done.
To be fair to TOD's, not all their shoes are created equally. Some have more durable soles than others.

Originally Posted by TourbillonTurk.

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Hi everybody, i bought my second pair of moccasins last week from car shoe, they are the "antique calf" in brown/moro. The problem is I love driving shoes and moccasins with rubber soles but the damage to the front toe and the back heel is so quick ! Is it naturally a persons walking habit that makes the shoe rub to the floor? Does anybody have tips to avoid it or what to do, because as with the tods I have by the end of this summer these shoes will also become shoes to sinmply go to local grocery store and back with.

Drivers are made for driving your sports cars where you need greater feel of the pedals to help you modulate the throttle and brake (and clutch, for those "true" sports car aficionados). As such, the sole is designed with this in mind. Unfortunately, this same sole design exposes that leather to damage when you walk. Maybe you can talk to your local cobbler to see if he has any suggestions, but IMO, the only way to minimize the damage walking does to a driving shoe is to choose a driver with a different sole design.

For instance, (Car Shoe), model KUD006 has the rubber go through the leather, so it tends to be very low profile and exposes the leather to the ground more so than the KUD180, which has the rubber sole below the leather. I've had two drivers each with the different sole designs and I found the wearing of the leather in the toe and heel area much more prominent on the KUD006 design.

Driving shoes, much like diving flippers, ballet flats, ice skates and snowshoes, are not made for walking around on pavement, and wear out very quickly when used in this inappropriate manner.

Thanks for the replies guys. By driving shoes I meant the style of the shoe. I do not use them specifically for the purpose of driving. When I do there is no problem with the scrapping of the toe and heel. It is only when walking on the road that with the pressure of your feet pressing the front down does the scraping of the toe to the road occur. I dunno maybe its one of those things that ill have to accept for the love of wearing them. But paying a good amount of money for something that damages so quickly... :/

I used Shoe Goo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoe_Goo). It dries clear. Barely noticeable and has stopped the wear on the heals of my drivers. Worked like a charm.

I know it's been a while since this topic was discussed but I do have something to add. Bought a pair of crocodile Original Car Shoes. Knowing that they are fairly delicate, I figured I would wear them infrequently and for light use only. Unfortunately, they started showing wear the first time I used them. The front of the sole was rubbing against the ground every time I would take a step and a wear mark developed after an hour of use. In literally no time it would develop into a hole. Surprisingly, the backs also started to show wear from resting on the carpeting in my car. So after roughly 5 wearings, I took them to Rago Brothers to have the nubs ground down and replaced with a proper rubber sole.

I think that the word shoe is misleading as these are actually much closer to slippers. They are completely useless for even a minimum amount of outdoor wear. It's really a shame because I think that may people who buy these, Tods Gommino or any other true driving moc think they are acceptable for general wear. Unless the sole is completely made of rubber with beads attached you need to be more than careful with them. Hopefully new soles will do the trick. If not, I spent the better part of $2,000 on a very nice pair of slippers that will never see the light of day.

Try Harry's of London. They have a Driver shape but a full rubber bottom. Quite comfortable for walking around town so they travel well.

http://www.harrysoflondon.com/basel-2-scotch-dark-brown