Material for DIY Sandals

General lounge
1

Asking on behalf of a friend:

We are about to take off on a paddling trip. I want to make us some DIY sandals, and am having trouble finding material. Do you know where I can find shoe sole material by the sheet? I am looking for 4 or 6mm Vibram Cherry, but am open to other sole materials. Just in case you were interested as well this is what I am looking at as a guide… https://xeroshoes.com/how-to-make-huaraches/

I’m not sure if our neighbours have appropriate material, as they make boot liners as opposed to whole boots. Any other suggestions besides “Google ‘shoe repair Vancouver’ and start calling around”?

2

Maybe check out Quick Cobbler?

They are just around the corner from VHS on 2nd Ave.

3

What about tires?

I have a pair I got in Peru and they’re really durable.

4

I know that one local cobbler/ shoe manufacturer uses a two part mixture acquired from Fibertek on boundary to make their soles. You would need a mold for that but a flat cookie sheet with wax on it might be fine to produce a sheet of material to cut and carve.

5

Our neighbours (Intuition) have very cool materials and are generally very
nice about giving out free/cheap samples (I have a 2m^2 chunk that I use
when I camp with my toddlers), it might be worth it to talk to them.
Outdoor innovations might also have something, they carry goretex-type
fabrics, I’d give them a call. In highschool I had a pair of tire sandals,
built by actual tarahumaras. Definitely a fashion statement, the things
destroyed my feet.

6

Tires, even the cool kids in the minimalist barefoot running community use
tires :wink:

The ultramaration race I was at a few weeks ago had one of the soloist’s come
in 4th wearing them.

https://fromzerotoultra.com/

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