Today’s post is brought to you by my ten-year-old son who managed to put not one, but two holes in his cheapie just-for-the-summer shoes that I bought two weeks ago.
Really kid? Not even a month of wear?
Just as I started into Mom Lectures 15 & 18: Money Does Not Grown On Trees and You Need To Take Better Care Of Your Stuff, Kid 1 interrupted to suggest we just fix the shoes with duct tape.
Duct tape?
My initial reaction was HECK NO, kid.
Taping shoes together has to bring thrifty to a new low (and not in a good way). But just as I was coming up with the reasons why duct tape would never work, I stopped short and did a 180.
Because thanks to Myth Busters and time to kill to during my hospital stay with kid 6, I know that duct tape can actually do anything.
And that’s before you even get into the whole wallet-purse-prom-dress-out-of-duct-tape craze.
So I said yes … and cut a few patches out of cardboard to level out the bottom of the shoe where the holes were … and added a bajillion (or four) layers of the brightest duct tape we had in the house …
… and just like that—Kid 1 was back to having dry feet. Well, dry ugly feet.
After seeing how the purple looked, my son decided he wanted to change the brown canvas to black “just like the cool kids.” Whatever that means.
So he gave Sharpies a whirl and ended up with two busted pens and shoes that were still brown. Awesome.
But since I was experimenting with mixing house paint in the middle of all this, he asked if he could use some, too.
Sure. Why not.
So off came the classy decorative duct tape trim and out came a foam brush.
Worked pretty well. The paint dried nicely and wasn’t stiff at all. Apparently Olympic Premium Indoor Latex paint in satin finish is the way to go here people.
And as for Kid 1, he’s ridiculously proud of his sad little house-painted-duct-taped wonders, proudly showing them off at Walmart today while I kept checking to make sure no one was getting a cell photo of us for thepeopleofwalmart.com – ha!
And despite how conflicted I feel about these things, he’s gotten compliments on them from other kids who think they’re so cool!
And maybe it’s a good thing that his shoes gave out so fast so that he could start a wave of duct tape art that rocks fifth grade like no body’s business. (And it saves me $10-$20 bucks for at least a few more weeks. 🙂
So…
Shoes With Holes?
They’re what not to toss this weekend.
7 Comments
Made me laugh! I love that he's getting compliments when you were worried about being emabarrassed 🙂 They did turn out pretty cool. What's the new word for "cool" these days anyway?
What a story! I don't blame you for feeling the way you did, I would've felt the same way. I'm glad he's happy and rockin' his new shoes!
funny, funny & they do look kinda cool! like mother, like son? 🙂
that's great
Awesome! And seriously, how do boys do that to shoes? Actually, I know how my boys do that. They use their feet as brakes when they are riding their bikes and scooters, despite the fact that these vehicles have brakes. They nod agreeably when I tell them not to do it again, but then the mysterious holes in their shoes appear anyway. I buy most of their shoes at Goodwill so I just won't feel as upset when the inevitable holes appear. This is a cool idea. My 12-year-old is in love with duct tape (for wallets, for wall art in his room, you name it 🙂 ).
It's great that your kid learned how to be self sufficient. One day he might need this skill in another way, and he will have the imagination and skill to fix his stuff!
unfortunately, shoes that have been duct aped don't have any grip on wet surfaces. Ouch! I learned by experience!