Not going to be of much help with sourcing this because all the pieces I used were what has been laying around my shoe shop for at least a decade at this point. I will say a scalpel wouldnt be the first knife I’d reach for. I find that its less about how sharp the blade is and more about the shape of it. The point of the blade especially is what I notice doing more of the cutting

Cheap retractable razor knives are what I use to cut it but I’ll take a few passes as well, I find I get much cleaner results that way. This is only about 8oz leather so not super thick either. Maybe its because the black leather there has a kinda plasticky finish on it and that’ll leave a super clean line even after beveling the edges and burnishing?

Aldi uses the quarter thing here too, surprisingly effective for us apparently. At least in my own experience I don’t see Aldi carts just hanging around often

Says the asshole who never actually uses the products vibe coding produces

Seems a proof of the shopping cart theory to me

No, not forgiveness. She knew what she was doing and this world is worse for her doing it. I’ll gladly never say another bad thing about her as soon as she disappears into obscurity and never speaks publicly again.

The ones I see coming into the shop are usually about a year or two old and the soles are turning into a sticky powder-like consistency. That in and of itself isnt the problem but because the uppers are attached to the insole by a thin very exposed thread that has been melted into the now crumbling sole I can’t remove enough of the old material to get any suitable adhesives to stick without cutting that structurally fundamental stitch.

The sneakers might hold up better but must just not hold up well enough for folks to bring them to me

I won’t say it’ll always be a good looking repair but it’ll be functional. Always worth it to let one of us take a look

Definitely like Adidas better than most

From my point of view athletic shoes aren’t really a thing that can be effectively repaired because even the nice ones use plastics that aren’t easy to work with after they’ve been worn. I can usually do something but its sentiment that keeps them going not quality. But really the lesson I try to teach people is to not give a fuck about the name on the shoe. It vastly more important to know how a shoe is supposed to fit on your foot and that it feels comfortable long term.

Edit: I will add a few names to avoid pretty much entirely though. Post-1988 Cole Haan (owned by Nike), Louis Vuitton and Ecco

Oh hey its Rand Paul “criticizing” the party he refuses to leave again. What a tool

Nikes are bar none the worst shoes people try to have me repair. They are made from shitty criminally overpriced plastic and foam that decomposes and falls apart in the box let alone after someone wears them

It’s a lump of iron that you have to try to fuck up to make it irreparable. Whoever formed the church of perfect cast iron maintenance needs to take a chill pill

Really funny that her official title is second lady

Yes (kinda) but not at the size of an indoor bonsai tree. It’d have to be much larger to be able to collect enough resources to grow fruit

“Oh sure you can have your coffee back just get rid of the orange turd first”

If the universe has any justice this idiot will die of something thats been completely preventable for decades

Its less a presense of depression and more a lack of hope

A working search function, real annoying having to use a different search engine to find thing on a website that ostensibly already has one