During the short life of any wading shoe, eventually it becomes necessary to replace the felt sole of the shoe. To do this you generally glue a new sole on top of the existing sole. Soles come in two varieties: plain felt or felt with studs. If you're going to make the effort to replace/add new soles, you might as well make sure they have studs. Unfortunately, the instructions that come with most replacement sole packs do not give you enough detail in order to do the job right. 'Doing the job right' means having the soles last through a few seasons without them falling off. Having done it now twice (and failing the first time), I followed these instructions after talking with a number of experts on the subject.

What You'll Need:

• Felt Sole Replacement Kit (e.g., Korkers or other brand)
• 1 to 2 tubes of extra contact cement (they never give you enough in the kit)
• Rubber Mallet or hammer
• An extremely sharp and strong knife, or plenty of sharp razor blades
• Optional - Jig saw or hack saw

Replacement Instructions

Important: follow these steps for one shoe at a time. If you already have studs in your existing sole, you may need to remove them or remove the entire sole before putting the new one on.

• 1. Clean your existing felt soles of any dirt/mud. This can usually be accomplished by using a wire brush to scrape the soles clean.
• 2. Place the new sole on the ground or work surface, felt side down. Place your wading shoe on the new sole so that your shoe is centered on the sole (i.e., the larger new sole extends beyond your existing sole all around). New soles are always larger than your existing soles, so its important to align the sole on the shoe before applying the cement and cutting. If the new sole has studs, make sure that the studs fit within the boundary of your existing sole. Using a pen/pencil, trace the outline of your shoe on the new sole. This will be used later to align the new sole on the shoe.
• 3. If your wading shoe has an arch or a defined heel, you have to measure and cut the heel from the new sole. Pick up the new sole and draw a line across the sole at the point where the heel starts on your existing sole. It's important to make sure that the heel is cut to the right size and at the right location as your existing heel. With an extremely strong/sharp knife or a saw, cut the sole in two along the line you just drew. Note: felt soles are hard to cut, make it as straight as possible.
• 4. Apply a thin layer of cement to the existing felt sole to seal it. Wait at least 1 hour before moving to the next step. Note: you can apply the cement with a glue/epoxy brush, or just goop it onto the shoe and spread it evenly with the mouth of the cement tube (wipe off any excess cement around the mouth of the tube after this).
• 5. Apply one coat of cement evenly to both the existing felt sole and the non-felt side of the new sole. On the new sole, make sure that you apply the cement evenly within the boundary of the outline that you traced in Step 2 (don't put any cement outside of the boundary of the outline). Wait at least 30 minutes.
• 6. Apply another coat of cement evenly to both the existing felt sole and the non-felt side of the new sole. Wait about 20 minutes (until the cement is barely tacky, not too sticky).
• 7. Now it's time to place the new sole onto the existing sole. If you have a shoe with an arch or defined heel, then start with the heel. Starting at the center of the shoe, align the new heel with the existing heel based on the outline you trace previously. Important: make sure that the new sole is aligned correctly because you only get one shot at this. Now firmly press the heel onto the existing heel, starting at the center of the shoe and pressing towards the end of the heel. Then firmly press the rest of the new sole onto the existing sole, starting at the center of the shoe and pressing towards the tip of the shoe.
• 8. Using a rubber mallet or hammer, tap the sole firmly starting at the center of the sole and tapping around the edges of the sole. To get a flat/firm surface to hammer against, you may need to place the shoe on the ground with the felt side up, and bend the ankle of the shoe to the side. Continue to tap the sole until the edges of the new sole are right up against the existing sole. The goal is to remove any bubbles in the cement and to make sure that there is little or no gap between the existing sole and the new sole. You may need to tap it firmly, and you may have to continue to tap the sole for one or two days after pressing the new sole onto the existing one to reduce the gap.
• 9. Let the contact cement harden for a minumum of 24 hours, then you can trim off the excess edge of the new sole. To trim off the excess, you need an extremely strong/sharp knife or razor blade. I ended up having to use an electric jig saw to trim off most of the excess. After removing most of the excess sole, use sharp razor blades to continue to trim off any excess and make the edge of the new sole flush with the old sole. Note: you will need a number of sharp razor blades because they go dull very quickly when cutting the felt sole.
• Note: if there is still a gap left between the existing sole and the new sole, you can still tap the edge of the sole for one or two days after first pressing the new sole onto the existing sole. You should also let the cement harden for at least 24 hours before wading in a stream with the new soles.

Submitted by Paul Johnston