Sole Performance Boot Resole
Sole Performance Boot Resole
CW EVALUATIONS
Salvation, two soles at a time
COME YE, BROTHERS AND SISTERS, AND follow the path to moto-boot right eousness. Do not cast out your weary soles, but send them forth for salvation!
If you’ve always felt it was sinful to buy new off-road boots every time the soles on your old ones wore out, take heart-there is a less expensive alternative. For $60-80 (plus $10 shipping), Sole Performance can make any brand of old boots.. .well, if not new, at least newer. On the advice of Bill Berroth from U.S. Sidi importer Motonation, we sent a pair of well-worn Sidi Tae Flex boots to Sole Performance, where proprietor Jim Rice resurrected them. Drawing on his 16 years of experience repairing “a few thousand” boots, he cut off the original soles, sewed on new rubber midsoles using heavy nylon thread, then bonded on new Sidi outsoles with heat-activated adhesive. A layer of clear urethane sealer around the joint and new metal toe caps finished the work.
But Rice didn’t stop there. Because he does warranty work for Sidi, he upgraded our boots to the latest spec, adding rivets at the inner corners of each shin plate, then covering the seams with urethane to prevent them from catching on sidepanels. Sano.
Not so sano, however, was the blackleather patch he sewed over the missing logo on the back of our right boot. Nor the positively Frankenstein stitching he used to reattach the rubber piece on our right boot’s instep.
But that’s all right, because our old boots got a new lease on life, and we saved $ 180 by not having to buy new ones.
Can we get a “hallelujah!?”
DETAILS
Sole Performance
165 S. El Camino Real #K
Encinitas, CA 92024
800/944-2755
www.shoeguy.com
Price..........$60-80
ps
A Cheaper than a new pair of boots A Choice of Sidi or Alpinestars soles A One-day turnaround A No painful break-in required
Downs
▼ Boots don’t look any newer
▼ Repairs a little rough, if effective
