7 Pairs Traveler Men's Shoe Heel Plates Taps with Metal Nails - Large

I installed these plates on my brand new shoes a couple weeks ago, and they are holding up very well. they are holding firm to the heel, and are taking the abuse of being the wear surface very well. I saw in some other reviews that people were having trouble with installation, so i thought I would share a couple tips from my experience: 1. Clean the bottom of the shoe thoroughly with rubbing alcohol and let it dry completely, this will best prepare the surface for good adhesion with the plate. 2. use a pair of needle-nose pliers to hold the nail in place so you can really get a good whack at it without risking your fingers (make sure the nail is perfectly centered in the hole so you will be able to get the head fully in the countersink when it is driven home) 3. Don't try to just "tap" the nail in. Especially on the first hit, give it a good, full strike. If you try to lightly tap the nail in, the rubber or leather sole surface is just going to laugh at you. 4. Make sure you sink the nails all the way flush to avoid marring any floor surfaces.

If you're looking at these taps, you're likely tired of having shoes with lots of life left in them but with heels ground rounded, raw and embarrassingly unsightly. A generation past, many of us remember being able to stop at a shoe shop and having taps put on the heel and toe. But most shoe shops have disappeared from the landscape with shoes becoming largely a disposable item with simple glued together construction and not intended to be repaired but only replaced. If you're lucky enough to know of the existence of a shoe shop in your neighborhood, you probably don't have the time to drop in and wait and add to that the expense of 6 or 7 dollars per pair, to have taps applied periodically. More expensive men's shoes, like, say, Allen Edmonds, have a refurbishing service for heels and soles, but at $150 or so a shot, you understandably want to delay that eventuality. These taps, at about a dollar a shoe seemed intriguing and so I decided to investigate and ordered a box. The taps are a hard plastic which are, of course, not intended to be as durable as metal taps, but also don't have the quirk of sounding like an armored division of tanks approaching as you walk. Each tap has a self adhesive that's exposed after removing the protective paper. Simply remove that paper and position it on the heal and toe of your shoe and press into place. That adhesive allows the tap to be held in place while you hammer the 3 nails into their respective positions. A shoemaker has a jig the shoe is placed on to hold it securely in place. Unfortunately, most of us don't have one of those handy, so must make due with, say, holding each shoe, heel up clutched between our knees. Actually, that seems to work. Each of 3 nails are tapped into place with a small hammer, for the heel only. The toe end is too shallow to allow to be nailed. After one month's use, I can report after daily use, they've remained in place. The heel tap nails went in easily, but inevitably are at somewhat of an angle. That leaves their head tilted and jutting out slightly and I worried they might damage wood floors. So I used the rounded end of my ball peen hammer to countersink those errant heads. The process took only a few minutes. Like another reviewer, I experimented and put Gorilla Glue under one tap to accompany the nails, and will compare the results with the shoe with just the adhesive and nails. So far both heel taps are staying nicely in place and showing minimal wear though worn daily on a pair of Edmond Allen cap toe "work" shoes. (A phone app tells me i average walking 2 to 3 miles a day on carpet, concrete and blacktop.) The additions are noticed as to the balance and stance of the shoe, but not negatively so. I plan to update the results and also the result of the gorilla glued and nailed tap as opposed to the simply nailed sister heel, after a few months wear. But at the moment, things look encouraging and I'm happy to have the extra added protection.

I like to wear nice shoes, but I hate tossing out a perfectly good, comfortable pair because it costs more to resole them these days than I paid for the shoes in the first place. I do a lot of walking, and I'm especially hard on the heels (I pronate when I walk, which means the heel strikes on the outside edge, and they wear down quickly), so when I bought my new boots, I also ordered this pack of 7 pairs of taps, to extend the useful life of the boots as long as possible. Time will tell how durable these taps are, but even if I have to replace them every couple months, this is a year's worth, and well worth the price.

I revised my review from 2 to 5 stars. I had issues with the nails not staying in on rubber heels and carpet would pull them out. The nails they provide do not fit into the recessed spot on the protector. After getting used to that and keeping an eye on them these plates have extended the life of my shoes so well worth the money if maintained. I walk a lot on sidewalks uptown and changed the plates every two weeks. Normally I'd need new shoes by now because of worn heels but mine are still close to new because the plates have worn instead.

I bought these to use on the soles of my daughters' suede boots (similar in design to UGG boots). Perhaps these plates are not meant for all types of soles, but I found them very difficult to apply when I worked with them. The nails would not penetrate the soft rubber sole, they just kept bouncing out of the guide hole when I hit them with a hammer. I switched to small screws (my own), and these went in since I could apply constant pressure. After that, the plates worked fine, though they did wear quickly. After I went through so much trouble to apply the plates the first time, I wasn't in the mood to re-apply them over and over, so the boots went to Goodwill. Not necessarily a success story, I'm afraid.

Disclaimer: I received no discount on this product thereby certifying “zero” bias whatsoever. I was skeptical about trying this product, but then again, I’ve gone several years before even knowing about a solution like this and in the process probably wasted hundreds if not thousands of dollars on new shoes. The sole of my work shoes wear out relatively fast (shoe heel); say within the first 4 months and the only alternative I found was getting a new pair (since repairs are as expensive as getting a brand-new pair). Enter “Traveler’s Shoe Heel Plates Taps”. I put these on my brand-new shoes almost 6 months back, and take a look at the after picture! I wish I had kept a picture of what it would look like had I not put these plates on. I don’t use the nails, rather just super glue these plates (as the nails tend to come off). It worked for me, and has already paid for itself in the additional 2 months I have gained in life on my shoes so far. Definitely worth a try!