For The Love Of Crocs

Hello Readers. I am going to start off by telling you how much I love Crocs. You know, the ugly plastic garden shoes. I wear them around the house like slippers. I know they are not very stylish but I love them anyway. They make other more attractive shoes as well. Below you can see my favorite summer shoes. They are from Crocs too. They seem to go with everything, shorts, summer dresses, jeans....anything. I wear them all the time.

But then this happened. The metal fastener in the back of one shoe broke off. I believe it was due to my not unbuckling the strap to take them on and off. I just pull on it and stretch it over my foot. Whatever the cause, I was crushed. I need these shoes until it gets cooler in the fall. I can't wear closed shoes in the heat. I need my sandals. Crocs doesn't offer this style anymore, so I was on my own.

I knew I could find a way to fix this shoe. My first attempt was to use a bit of wire and two buttons. It held together but was not comfortable. I also thought these buttons for jeans might work, but they were not long enough. I had to drive to town and visit the closest fabric store. (I didn't mind at all. I love the fabric store.)

That's where I found this package of rivets for making jeans. It was the longest length they made and I hoped it would work for my shoe.

I came home and got to work. It was a two piece system. They fit together and then with a squeeze they grab and hold on to each other. Forever, I hoped.

The package came with a white plastic piece to hold the rivets together while you hit it with a hammer. That didn't work so I didn't include pictures of that whole effort. These pliers worked great. I just squeezed the two parts of the rivet together and checked to see if they were holding together on their own. 

It worked perfectly. It has been 2 weeks and they are still together. As you can see, the shoe I fixed doesn't match the other exactly. It has a larger silver piece on the back. That's OK. I don't think anyone will notice. No one should be looking at the back of my foot that closely.

I am super happy with this repair. And my feet are happy too. Crocs didn't pay me to say how much I love them. I just wanted to share this on-going project I have been working on.

Now go make, or repair, something fun for yourself.