Deconstructing Calvin Klein's

My old dress shoes had multiple cracks in the soles.  If I wore them on a rainy day or a day with damp ground my feet would always get cold and wet.  I dealt with it a couple of times but put them away for months.  I returned to them this summer as I was looking for a slimmer dress shoe to go with my slimmer pants.  So I brought them back out this summer and wore them some more but as the months rolled on I found them to make my back sore and tire sooner.

I learned how many different pieces come together in a pair of shoes, even a pair of $100 shoes made in China.  I found how the semi-transparent sole is glued on and after enough use will easily come apart.  I pretty much just tore it out with my hands once I got a piece I could rip at.  The stitching is cheap and much of it is a faux stitch that is glued behind it.  Even in the padding on the inside the stitching is faux and the whole bottom piece is glued to the bottom of the shoe.  It was fun to find out that most if not all shoes have a steel plank in them; I'd guess to help support your foot and keep the shape of the shoe.

So I came home from work one day, grabbed a box cutter, pliers and shears.  Here's what I came up with.  It was an interesting process!