Disintegrating shoes

Problem
Shoes stored for years in the tropics come out of shoe boxes, revealing a mountain of black fragments from disintegrating heels.

"Throw them away!" tuts Mr Tidy Minded.

"No, no," I protest. The box label reveals a good brand. The shoe base reveals the size. In better times I bought from expensive shoe shops in department stores in Singapore such as Ngee Ann City where we used to live. I could not afford to replace all these shoes now. The tops are fine. Such a waste. What will I do now?

Answers
1 Save the shoes and try to find a cobbler or buy shoe glue to marry shoe bases whose top part disintegrated with top parts whose soles and heels disintegrated.
2 Stick on soles.
3 Only buy one pair in the UK, this year's style (or last year's second hand). Wear them non-stop, daily for a season until they are worm out.

That way I get the wear. I get my moneys worth.

No long term storage. No finding the shoes are no longer my size.

Stick the receipt on the side of the shoe box. If shoes collapse, I still have a receipt, quick to find. I know if the price I paid meets the time and trouble to try to get a refund or replacement. I can take them back to the shop because I still have the receipt and the shoes have lasted less than six months.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.
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Travelling in stretchy sandals - sensible and comfortable

I wore a very pretty pair of gladiator style sandals around San Francisco but after 24 hours all the pretty thin straps were coming lose from the base, some broke, and I wasted hours trying to find a shoe mender and then looking in shops for a more sensible pair of shoes which were less likely to wear out.

Nowadays I like shoes which fasten with Velcro or any brand of touch and close or hook and loop.  Adjustable sandals accommodate the changing shape of feet when you fly from one climate  to another, or if your feet swell on an airplane. My favourite brands in the UK are Hotter and Free-step and Cushion-walk.

Clarks, Hotter
Clarks also sell a range of sandals which expand. Now the shops in the UK have summer sales. Clarks and Hotter have shops in many UK high streets and indoor shopping malls. If you are in a shopping mall, the department stores also have shoe sections.

The latest trend seems to be elasticated straps. Some of the shoes have uppers entirely made of one tow or three pieces of elastic strap, sometimes in two or three parallel lines, others in a Y or X shape.

German brands include Birkenstock.

Sandals in practical styles common all colours, from earth browns, or match everything blacks and white, or lively reds and turquoise or yellow, or glamorous gold or silver which takes you through day and evening.

Brands I noticed in a chemist (pharmacy or drug store) in London, England were Rieker and Rapisardi. What are shoes and sandals doing displayed in a chemist shop? The sandals advertise themselves as being anti-stress.

I am trying not to buy another pair of shoes.
You can find customer reviews of products on Amazon.

Websites / contacts
jdwilliams.co.uk call 0871 231 2000
www.hotter.com (75 stores nationwide, UK) call free 0800 525 893


Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.