"No. We cannot put leather soles on those shoes."

These ones. Would be cuter with a red stripe,
but I was in a time crunch.

Picked up a pair of sweet white converse sneakers a few weeks ago, with an adorable little star cutout in the side and everything.  Hurriedly slapped some moleskin on the bottoms for the weekend, and started dancing with them.  I especially like them because they lace all the way up, very close to my ankle (unlike Keds or Ked knockoffs), which actually keeps the shoes ON my narrow, very low-volume feet.

[Keds, Aris Allens, almost every tennis shoe or approach shoe I've ever had, including the ones with the marathon-loop holes laced all the way up- I can still slide my foot out of almost every shoe I've ever worn, without untying it.  These Converses stay. on.]

Minus some minor edge peeling of the moleskin which I fixed with a spot of superglue, they've been fine, but the edges are slowly eroding, losing one thread at a time.

So I decided it'd be a good idea to get some real leather soles put on them. So I go down to my local, friendly shoe-repair store.

I walk in holding the sneakers, and I ask if they can put leather soles on them.

"No."



"Um, they're for dancing? I know that friends of mine, well not here, but have gotten leather soles put on non-dress shoes?"

"It won't work with those shoes."

"Because the soles aren't flat?" (They do have a small amount of tread.)

"No.  It won't stick to the rubber."

"You can't glue it on?"

"No."


And that was that, for that shop, apparently.  I wonder if I should have specified suede leather? But I was fairly flummoxed by his flat refusal in the first place.  I suppose I will have to find the time between now and Lindy Focus to either cut new moleskin and glue the edges all the way around to prevent peeling, or take myself down to the craft shop and find some suede, and cut it, and glue it on.  Would really have rather paid the people who know what they're doing to accomplish this, though.