Stretching Leather Shoes?

[BoldHighlander]

1995 at Ft Jackson SC if you can believe that dude. Every one of in my platoon were probably "whining" about how tight our boots were fitting. That was the solution the Drill Sergeant came up with and to be honest it really did work great. They were my favorite pair of boots till they wore out in AIT.

Ha! Ha! I thought perhaps it was earlier

Thanks.

[Tobus]

In the Army they seemed to issue everyone a pair of boots that were a bit too small. So what they made us do was put them on then fill them with water and we had to march around all day till they dried out. Believe it or not they ended up being the most comfortable pair of combat boots I ever owned in the Army. Just a thought anyway.

That's good advice for pretty much anything leather. Folks around here will take a brand-new saddle, dunk it in a horse trough, slap it on the horse, and ride until the leather dries. That's the only way to break in a new saddle to fit the horse comfortably that doesn't take a long time. Works with shoes, works with boots, works with anything leather! You gotta wet-mold it to the user.

[artificer]

Yup, fill your boots with water, wear until comfie (and mostly dry). It's hard on the feet for day 1, but they'll thank you every day after.

I still do this today whenever I need a new pair of 'street boots'.

[Lallans]

Just a word of caution from my past: soaking leather boots and walking them dry as described used to lead to permanently, and I mean PERMANENTLY, dyed socks of the same colour. Mind you that would happen with wet boots anyway. And I wonder how this would work with the mostly non-leather high tech boots available now?