Make Your Own "Zero-Drop" Bushboots 

An old rubber doormat works really well for outsole material. Usually has nonslip tred design and it's made to be walked on. You could make a nice pair of boots for close to nothing if you are willing to search around a bit.

AMAZING .. didnt cost the earth. amazing work

The glue is a professional cobbler's glue, great bang for the buck

This one needs a follow up vid. Thank you so much for sharing!

Excellent 🎉

Love this idea. We definitely need an update video to for comfort, durability etc. Keep up the great work.

Neil, a great idea. Having stuck soles myself, it is a good idea to apply pressure to the centre of the soles, or the sole can bow out. I have used a couple of six inch G cramps which can get inside the shoe, sometimes in conjunction with a piece of wood under the sole.

Monthy Phytons reference in 1st minute was enough for me to subscribe :)

Awesome concept! would love to see a follow up after some hikes and see how they hold up

Absolutely brilliant

I use shoe goo to repair the soles of my shoes, I'm cheap😀😀😀😀 They came out very nice. 👍👏👏👏

I worked a few years on a shoe repair business. Soles like that can easily be removed with all purpose thinner that some leather craft store sell. Soles are put back on with contact cement. Hammer the sole back on if you do not have a shoe press from the interior to the edges. A note of caution: boots with heals are often constructed with a shank in the sole to support the arch as well as the upper is shaped to match this shape. Removing the heal may make the foot ware uncomfortable.

Great idea, thanks a lot! A few remarks: this planer is a tool for dry wall installation or gypsum boards. Not sure if I would use it but would instead try some low grid sandpaper like 60, 80 or 100 grid probably on a power sander. OK, re. the contact glue: you want to paste it with a brush on both sides but not very think, check with the tip of your finger after 10-15 minutes if the thinner in the glue has evaporated meaning it doesn't stick to your finger anymore once it dried enough, put both parts together (that's the tricky part as there's no way to correct positioning anymore and smash all of the glued area with a flat rubber hammer spot after spot. Contact glue does NOT require any drying time like wood glue. But it loves ONE second or so of max pressure!

Nice usefully video Neil. I've got some summer boots with crappie uncomfortable soles on so I don't wear them. I gonna give this a go now.

Good idea , thanks for sharing , God bless !

Chiming in here as a "barefoot" hiker/runner. Been wearing Luna sandals for years (about 10 now?), absolutely love them. Before wearing them I used Vibram 5-finger toe shoes for a few years, but getting them sized properly was a huge pain compared to the barefoot sandals that are available so I moved on from them. Luna sandals are basically just that rubber soling material with some straps, looks like boots made in this method would work great. You could also make sandals out of this same method by cutting two slots, one on each side a bit ahead of the ankle, and then punching a hole in the spot between the big toe and the one next to it. Put some nylon webbing through that front hole, tie a stopper knot on the underside, and run the other side over the top of the foot and through the slot on the outside of the foot. Run it around the back of the foot, through the slot on the inside of the foot, and then tie it off to the portion passing over the foot. Very cool to see that it's basically just as simple to make a boot using cut-to-size soling material like that. And yeah, the feeling of having such lightweight footwear is amazing, almost addictive even. I can't go back to hiking in big heavy shoes that each weigh more than twice as much as the sandals I'm used to.. but I could see myself using lightweight boots like this.

Nice job gotta give this a try

interesting project Neil. Thanks Nate

Great video and awesome idea. I’m going to try it. Thanks for sharing 👍

Loved the monte python reference

Love Roamers desert wellies, cheap as chips and bomb proof.

Glad to see a video like this since I have very wide feet and most zero drop is very narrow.

Fab reuse of some well worn boots, I resoled mine with an old tyre, love your content

Very good my friend

Well crafted my friend.

This glue is made in Poland :) and here cost less than 1 GBP.

Nice work! This kind of cement, however, does not require clamping to adhere well -- in fact it is more usual to ensure bonding with well-placed hammer blows, using a special steel appliance inside the shoe and a broad-faced hammer on the outside (on the bottom of the sole). Lacking that, you might try cutting a piece of plywood (one will do) to fit inside the shoe while hammering the sole with a dead-blow hammer -- you can hardly strike the bottom too hard or too many times . . .

Great video

I'm going to be doing this with my trail runners that I bought from goodwill for $7 I'm just going to be cutting out the foam and leaving the base trail rubber layer only then sewing it all together and gluing as needed I really like your idea a whole lot because I also don't want to buy $150 pair of winter boots so hopefully I can find some boots I can do this to as well :)

Barge might be a good alternative for sole cement. Thanks for video.

Another absolutely fantastic video Neil! Thanks for this, I've just ordered some rubber sheets and glue for a resole! Keep up the great work mate. Danny

The difference between who you are and who you want to be. Is what you do.

Hey! I don't remember when I subscribed to your channel, But I'm so glad I did! Your videos are so interesting, innovative and well made! Thank you very much for all your work! Cheers from Belgium 🇧🇪 😀

A follow up to see how They go Please Neil would be great to see , and that goes for all Your Kit !

I like making your own kit vids, good ideas but would be interested in a follow up video on how they hold up after use, also what are the advantages of the zero drop footwear over the conventional type if any.👍

Bochem makes even better glue, called "Bonikol Pur-B". I think it's kind of industrial-strong one 💪Check it out. Greetings from Poland😁

this looks like the PROHo dudes brother

I am going to make my cousin Ed running to turn into a zero drop. Save money. Thanks

I'm disappointed. "Re-Sole Your Boots to Zero Drop" would be a better title.

They look like they are going to be extremely slippery in any type of terrain, even in the city if it's the least bit wet.

I've been looking for a pair of those roamers for years, brilliant boots. Stood up to every sort of abuse, got them caked in wet mud, 5 minutes with a wire brush and they were brand new again. Better than the so called walking boots I've had since by a million miles. Can you still buy them?

I would love to do this with more shoes. I've had ankle injuries and can't stand even a small heel. I like completely flat shoes and boots. I think if I were going to do this, I would draw the outline of the shoe on the new sole but not cut it out. I would then scuff both sides and apply the glue within the perimeter and stick the boot on so that any excess could be cut off if it wasn't aligned perfectly. Then you can cut around it and clamp it and clean it up after it sits for 24hrs. For clamping, I would have used some sort of painting sticks or wood strips that could extend the middle and clamp on either side to put pressure over the middle as well as the edges. Before gluing anything on, I would have tidied up the threads on the shoe with a threadzapper so there were no strands hanging out. How well do the new soles grip when walking? This helped me to see the construction of the boots and I plan to do something like this using some slippers. Thank you.

How do you take care of suede leather? I like how breathable it is, I thought adding wax would reduce this, but increase life span

Yup, it is in polish language and it translates as "shoemaker's glue" :) And the process was correct. It is a butapren glue, so you cover both roughed up sides, degass it for 15 - 20 mins, stick it together and clamp it for a day:) Also your ventilation remark was good. It smells badly and it's not good for health.

I'm wearing Designer Swedish Military Surplus. A bit of M59 crossed with M90 with a splash of English (not British) MTP. 🤣 With a choice of LK35/70 or a civvy Haglöfs when I don't want to freak people out 😹

I made boot souls from tires they last a long time and you can make sandals also

Ideally, you take shoe cement, apply to both sides of what you want to stick together, and let it dry before sticking it and hammering it on.

Best not to breath in leather dust, it's carcinogenic....very. Think asbestos level bad Good tutorial. That neoprene contact adhesive can be made to have a strong bond by hammering the parts together. Hence the term impact adhesive used with some brands of glue.

Take a look at the traditional south African veldskoens or "bush shoes". Look very similar and we have worn them for generations.

08:16 this glue come from Poland, it simply means shoemaker's glue.

I am thinking a walmart pair of house slip on chanks, remove the bottom soul from the inner soul as a proto type... Yes, yeeeeees that is a mighty fine idea for now...

Great video! What are the links to the boot and supplies. I searched on Amazon but can’t find the boots or supplies. Thank you for your help with the links. Also I went to your Etsy site but there is nothing to buy. Are you out of stock?

Fun video, please add better links to products in description.

Isn't it possible to buy precut replacement rubber soles?

No test drive?! Great looking soles. Bet they will work well for you.

A belt sander clamped to the table with a 36 grit ceramic belt will smooth the sole edge.

Don’t need clamps. Contact cement is applied to both surfaces then allowed to dry. It’s pressure that sticks the two together. Just use a hammer to hammer the two together. Have you ever seen a cobbler use clamps? Answer: no.

Any idea if you can still get these? I’m looking for a warm weather pair of boots

Can you purchase thicker soling material?

I'm not the only one who was waiting for a naked man playing the piano.... right?

Hello the original boots look already very comfort, could not just catch Which boots these are, can you provide name/brand ? Good to know how can fix them and give them a second live. Btw how quiet are they when stalking in the woods (on dead leafs branches etc) ?

Thanks for sharing this project! I want to make a pair like this. It's really hard to find any shoe like this for under about $150 in the USA.

so, aside from fashion, how are they to walk around the woods in? Slipping on everything? Archs ache? None of the above?

where can I get a smock like that?

I would have used a wedge sole instead. I think that would be uncomfortable.

A lot cheaper than buying vivobarefoot. Maybe Dremel some grip in to keep them ZD

I wouldve sanded down the indentations made on the material from the hollows in the heel of the old soles.

This is interesting; in your language "to chuck" seems to mean "to add" or "to put on" while in mine it means "to get rid of something, often by throwing it."

Do you have a link to the original boots you used?

yey polish glue... or just one made for both english speaking and polish market?

yip it was a great watch. After watching this I thought I'd cut my boxer shorts down to reduce the weight

What was the name of the pair of desert boots you modified?

Cool tutorial but just so you know - this sole in not ment to prevent slipping so be very careful. They have better ones for this. And also, I wish you would have played with the toebox a little to make it wider. This would make the size smaller but would have made them healthier. And one more thing, transitioning to zero drop should be done gradually and mindfully to prevent injuries

How long did they last?

Look to the skate boarding industry for real comfort and lightweight insoles.

i need tthis shoes who can i buy them

What is the boot brand?

Road test results. Well, woods test results please.

That’s a rasp.

So the zero drop trend is basically just a revisit to things like Chucks and Van's from the 90s, but now it's "natural"...

are they slippery on rocks and wet ground?

Or just go to Timpsons 🤣😂

More like Zero-drip lmao

Polish glue......? To there HAS to be a joke hiding in there somewhere.

Boots with no grip don't seem such a clever idea.

No good for me , I need a heel on my boot

Amazon, Amazon, Amazon…so sick of hearing that company’s name.

Why they last LESS than usual ?