I tested tips that are popular on the internet and I’ll show you how I managed to save my old shoes

My name is Leticia and I love getting to know organization and cleaning tricks. Recently, I saw the advice from Internet users in the article “18 Valuable Tips from Internet Users for Repairing Clothes and Shoes” and I thought: “Do they really work?”

As I have a personal goal of not buying clothes and shoes for a year to save money, I thought it would be a good time to test out three creative repair methods, using objects that are easily found at home: eraser, nail polish and masking tape.

Today, I decided to share my experience with the awesome.club and tell how I managed to save some shoes that were in need of a “new life”. Check out!

There’s a sandal that I’ve worn in every possible scenario and then some. Including being under the blazing sun for hours on Brazilian beaches. On one of these occasions, the sole began to peel off, causing somewhat embarrassing situations: the little pieces started to come off while I was walking around my friends’ houses, for example.

The internet user in the photo above inspired me to use the Scotch tape🇧🇷 After all, if it worked for headphones, it should work for sandals too, right? I believe that the ideal would have been to use a wider tape — just like him — to be faster. But I only had one tape here at home.

Attachment is real and I didn’t want to get rid of the sandal. But pulling each piece out is a little tricky, as the more I pulled, the more I pulled the pieces out of the sole—and the shoe’s appearance got worse and worse.

So I decided to test the internet user’s tip. I glued the tape on the most “critical” parts of the sandal and quickly pulled it off, like a shave🇧🇷 That way, I was able to pick up smaller pieces of the sole without damaging it further.

I cannot say that the result was perfect, as the shoes still look very old. Even so, I believe that the look of the piece has improved a lot and I already feel much more comfortable to wear the sandal again.

I confess that I found it difficult to believe in this trick, because I did not imagine that a Nail polish could considerably soften the holes or scratches in the shoes.

The “before and after” result above seems almost “miraculous”, don’t you agree? But the Internet user guarantees that it is really the same shoe. Even though I didn’t quite believe it, I decided to try the tip on a red boot, which — poor thing — was pretty worn out.

My result was clearly not as good as the internet user’s: the heel marks are still very visible. However, we can say that they are smoother and, from afar, the holes go unnoticed.

I believe the technique could have worked better if I had used a nail polish the same color as the shoeie red. But the proposal was to make repairs with objects that we easily find at home, right? So, it wouldn’t make much sense to buy a nail polish in the same shade as the boot just for that purpose.

If you want to test the tip at home, I have a tip: don’t overdo the nail polish🇧🇷 When I was very happy with the first results, let’s say I got carried away and made a mistake, putting on a lot more nail polish than I should have and that ended up staining the boot (by the way, now I need to see some tips on how I can fix that 😅).

The best thing is to apply the nail polish gently and patiently, making small “dots” with the tip of the brush. No rush and no exaggeration.

The internet user in the photo above said that she uses a rubber to clean stains and dirt from your sneakers. And he guarantees that the technique works especially on suede, leather and rubber shoes. But we decided to try the trick with mirrored materials.

Metallic and mirrored heels give a very cool look to the outfits, but they get “damaged” quite easily. One night out is all it takes for them to come back scratched or stained. It did no good to wipe the boot above with a wet cloth. So, I ran after an eraser and decided to try it.

And didn’t it work, without much effort? I didn’t even have to rub the rubber many times or hard. To remove the “rubber marks” I simply rubbed a piece of toilet paper on my heels and that was it.🇧🇷 I was quite satisfied with the result.

I also tested the method on white synthetic leather sneakers, with many stains that didn’t come out so well after soaking the shoes in water. Of course, I couldn’t work miracles on the parts where the shoe material itself was worn out, but the dirt marks came off easily with the rubber.

Finally, I decided to test the same tip on a rubbery material — but I can tell you that it didn’t work out so well. The sandal continued to look very dirty even after using the rubber. The way, then, was to “appeal” to the old and traditional trick of soaking shoes in water and washing powder.

About 20 minutes later, my sandal was clean and I was much happier with the result. Doesn’t she look like she’s brand new?

Have you ever used any of the above methods to repair your shoes and clothes? What’s the best trick you’ve ever used? Share your tips with awesome.club in the comments.