Saturday, March 6, 2010

Fixing Velcro Straps on Sidi Shoes

I love my Sidi Genius shoes. Great shoes, and you can just keep wearing them and replace the various parts that wear out. Cleats wear out, put new cleats on. The rubber heel stops wear out, replace them (though they are a bit expensive and I wear them out fast, usually from running down the Caltrain platform to get a train). The buckles at the top of the front of the shoe are also replaceable.

However, I've had an annoying problem that I've let slide for the last year or so frankly, that isn't of the just unscrew the dead part and put in a new one. The velcro straps on my Sidis stopped velcro-ing.

After ignoring it for a while I decided to look around. Turns out the answer was pretty straightforward - this isn't the revelation that figuring out how to fix the stuck wake button on my iPhone was, but it's pretty useful.

Here's one of the offending non-sticking straps.



Materials. Little pack of velcro I picked up at a craft store for $3. The velcro has a sticky back, but the craft store lady and I decided I should also throw down some real adhesive as well. I used "Fabric-Tac", (the bottle cost $8) but after I was done, it was pretty clear that regular super glue would have been fine.



The problem was pretty simple to diagnose. The "furry" part of the velcro was the "defective" chunk. Both sides are synthetic - "Hooks and Loops" - so in theory this shouldn't happen, my understanding is the furry "Loops" side is more likely to lose its mojo. I've even read info on how to get the mojo back, but I just peeled the velcro off of the toe strap.



I cut a piece of furry velcro the same size as the old furry. I had already checked that the new furry velcro would stick to the hooks side. Stuck like glue.



I glued the new furry stuff onto the toestraps, let it dry, and trimmed the new velcro to match the toestraps as best as possible.



Worked like a charm.

5 comments:

Frank Irwin said...

Nice work.

My Sidis don't have the velcro straps, they have what looks like fishing line loops, with a rotating adjustable thingy. I hate velcro, just because it wears out, and I'm lazy.

Me said...

Wow thanks for posting all of that with great pics!

... I will try this if I can't get my shoe store to do it

Unknown said...

It’s good to hear that you got your shoes fixed already. At least, you don’t have to bother yourself from worrying about those freaking old Velcro snaps! Haha! It could really be bothersome when you walk.

Thelma Bowman

tahoemnts said...

Thanks for the share. I have this exact problem going on now. I'm going to give this a shot and see how it goes.

edjmorales said...

I've been staring down this problem for four years now, and I finally took care of it tonight. Thanks for the inspiration - I've had my dominators since 2002 - hopefully they can take me another 13 years.