Does anyone have any guidance on customizing shoes with a sharp blade? (Read 640 times)

I've come to the conclusion that I need to remove the heeltabs in my shoes.  Does anyone have any advice on how to do it?

 

I just cut the heeltabs off an old pair with kitchen scissors to test it out.  It worked, but all the innards are bursting out, bits of the foam cusioning bursting out and fraying edges.    What else do people do?  Would putting a layer of duct tape over the cut hold it together?  Any more sophisticated techniques?  I don't want to cause a new set of problems with chafing from the cut edges, or chafing because I put duct tape over the heels. 

 

What have other people done?  Any "guide to cutting off the heeltabs" out there?

 

what about glue gun glue or super glue - then sandpaper it down??

So, it looks like I have the option of no shoes (on inner city sidewalks) or power tools? Awesome!  No wussy middle ground here. 

 

Does anyone know of a good cordless belt sander?  That way I can take it with me to races, just in case I need to do any minor adjustments before the start.

Last Summer I was talking with a woman who had a favorite shoe (it was a lightweight Nike, IIRC) that had evil, achilles-eating heel tabs.  She cut them off, then finished them off with duct tape.  I had a pair of Saucony Guides that I liked, but the heel tabs chewed-up my achilles something awful.  I ended up returning them, but in hindsight wonder if it would have been worth a little shoe surgery.

All this heel tab and Achilles' talk reminds me of the scene in Kill Bill (2?) where Uma Thurman cuts the rapist orderly's Achilles' before (finishing him off and) absconding with his wheels. Ouch! I'll bet a scythe would have taken the whole foot off.

 

Poor David Carradine. Anything ever come out of that Thai "investigation"?

I wasn't familiar with cabbage patch or running man

I'm not entirely sure that this new knowledge is going to enrich my running, but we'll see.