How to stretch shoes at home

Long-term wearing of shoes that are small has a negative impact on health. At best, you will get off with calluses, but at worst, you can face the formation of blood clots, poor posture and constant pain in the joints.

How to stretch small shoes at home?

The content of the article:

1. Before stretching
2. Leather
3. Nubuck, suede, textile
4. Patent Shoes
5. Artificial leather
6. Rubber Shoes
7. Sneakers

Tips before stretching – what to consider to avoid ruining your shoes?

Before starting the process of wearing shoes, you need to take into account a few nuances so as not to spoil it.

• First, you need to find out what material the shoes, boots, sneakers, etc. are made of. Based on this information, the tool will be selected.
• Secondly, you need to thoroughly clean the inside of the boots. If they are dirty, the stretching process is unlikely to be satisfactory.

Note: if the shoes of a well-known brand are very expensive, then it is better not to risk it and consult with a master. It is worth doing the same if you cannot identify the material. This is due to the fact that a method that is ideal for leatherette can cause irreparable damage to textile products, and so on.

Genuine leather shoes – 5 ways

Before you start, pay attention to the degree of skin thickness. Thin material must be handled with extreme care. If the skin is dense enough, you can not deny yourself anything.

There are several ways to stretch.

Most are based on water procedures, temperature and mechanical effects:

1. Warm water and socks. Dip your socks into warm water, squeeze them well and put on. On top, put on boots that need to be stretched and walk around the apartment in them. The wearing time will depend on the density of the skin. For thin material, 20-30 minutes will be enough, for thick material – 1 hour or more.
2. Alcohol. Apply a liquid containing alcohol to a cotton pad and dab the inside of the shoes thoroughly. Then put on a few pairs of socks and shoe them. Wear boots until you feel dry socks.
3. Boiling water. Dip the genuine leather boots in boiling water for half a minute, then put on several pairs of socks, and on top of the shoes. Wear it for 10-15 minutes until it is lukewarm. Please note that this method is more suitable for dense skin.
4. Freezing. Take 2 regular bags, spread them in your shoes and fill with water, then send them to the freezer for 7-10 hours. In the morning, take out your shoes – and as soon as you can, take out the contents from them.
5. Candle paraffin… Rub the inside of the shoes with paraffin, fill them back to back with any cloth and leave for 7-10 hours. Then take out the fabric and check if the boots are looser.

After all the above methods, shoes need dry properly… It is advisable to leave it to dry in the open air, out of direct sunlight.

Avoid using heaters, hair dryers, and other artificial sources. Also, after all the manipulations, the shoes should be treated with a fat cream.

Video: 5 ways to stretch your shoes

Shoes made of nubuck, natural suede, textiles – 2 ways

With such materials, problems rarely arise. They usually wear out quickly and take the shape of a leg.

But, if the problem still arises, the issue can be solved in two safe ways:

1. The first way is steam… To do this, put a container of water on the gas and wait until the water boils. As soon as steam starts to stand out, bring your shoes to it and hold it for 5-7 minutes. Then put on one or two pairs of tight socks and walk in your boots for 10-15 minutes. If you are not satisfied with the result, you can do this a few more times.
2. Method two – hot socks… Heat thick socks well with an iron or hair dryer, put them on, put on your shoes and walk around until the socks cool down. This procedure is safe, so if there is no result, you can repeat the above one more time.

These are the two most harmless methods that will prevent material deformation.

There are many more ways, but most of them involve the use of water, which is highly undesirable for suede and nubuck.

Patent shoes – 2 stretch options

With patent leather shoes, everything is much more complicated. This is associated with a high risk of damage to the lacquer coating.

However, there are 2 safe options:

1. Alcohol-containing solutions… Soak a cotton ball in alcohol, eau de toilette, or other liquids that contain alcohol, and dab the inside of your shoes. After that, wear them in tight socks for half an hour.
2. Petrolatum… Spread Vaseline on the inside of your shoes. Where they are roughest, apply another coat. Put on thick socks and walk around in patent leather shoes for 30-60 minutes.

Artificial leather shoes – 6 ways to stretch and not spoil leatherette

Leatherette needs a separate approach. The same methods are not applicable to it that are used for natural leather, textiles or suede.

The leatherette hardly stretches, it breaks easily and loses its original shape.

But there are still several safe methods:

1. Thick socks – not the fastest, but the most harmless method for leatherette. Just put on one or more pairs of heavy socks, put on your boots and walk around the apartment for several hours. Repeat the procedure for 3-4 days.
2. Petrolatum… Spread the inside of the shoes with Vaseline ointment, put on tight socks and walk in them for 30-40 minutes. Vaseline ointment can be replaced with any greasy cream.
3. Hair dryer. Put on warm socks and put on your shoes. Then, from a distance, start heating the boots with a hair dryer. When you feel warm, turn off the hair dryer and walk around the apartment until your shoes are cold again. Repeat the procedure 2-3 more times.
4. Corn… Pour pre-soaked grain into your boots. The soaked groats will swell, stretching them. Boots with croup should stand at least overnight.
5. Laundry soap… Rub the inside of your shoes well with laundry soap, put on several pairs of socks and wear them around the house for 1-2 hours.
6. Special pastes… Individual instructions are provided for each store tool. But they all work according to the same principle – the paste is applied to the shoes from the inside, after which it needs to be worn out from several minutes to several hours.

Rubber shoes are an effective way to stretch

Not all rubber shoes are stretchable. All your efforts will be pointless if the rubber boots are made of classic rubber. But nowadays a lot of rubber shoes are made from PVC, which can be stretched.

You can check what material your rubber boots are made of using gas or a lighter and a needle. Heat the needle on gas and apply it to any place on the boots. If nothing happens when the needle touches, this means that you have no chance of making the shoes bigger. If the material under the needle began to melt – the shoes are made of polyvinyl chloride, which means that you can proceed to the process of stretching it.

1. Heat water to a boil and pour it into rubber boots.
2. When you feel that the PVC has softened, pour out the boiling water, put on several pairs of socks and boots on top.
3. Walk around in boots for 10 minutes and put them in a container of cold water for 40-60 minutes.

Also, using this method, you can adapt shoes to the shape of your foot, which is often not enough with rubber boots.

You can put on boots only after they are completely dry, on average it takes no more than 2 days.

Sneakers – a way to make them looser

Wearing tight shoes is unhealthy, especially when it comes to sneakers. In order not to face complications in the future, you need to wear only loose shoes.

1. There is an easy way to make your sneakers looser, but first, just try replace sneaker insoles with thinner ones… If that doesn’t work, go to the next step.
2. Soak enough newspaper in water, then wring them out and fill the sneakers back to back. In this state, the shoes should stand for 5-8 hours. Note that newspapers can stain white sneakers.
3. Alternatively, one can use hot water and warm socks method…
4. In addition to traditional methods, there are many foams, pastes, sprays and so on in stores.

To make shoes looser without damaging them, you first need to familiarize yourself with the material from which it is made. The method of stretching shoes should also be chosen based on the material. If it was not possible to determine the material, and the shoes are dear to you, then it is better to immediately contact the master. Do not forget that after the performed manipulations, the shoes must be dried well, without using artificial sources of heat.