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There are so many reasons you might find yourself with a pair of shoes that are just slightly too small. Maybe you ordered shoes online and they didn’t fit in person the way you expected them to. Or perhaps they were the only pair of their kind available at a thrift store, and you just had to have them. Or another case might be that they used to just barely fit you, but you have some edema in your feet, and now they are just slightly too tight.
Whatever the reason, if you are like me, you have probably passed on more than a few pairs of shoes that you would have loved to keep.
Well, now you can keep them! I just discovered this awesome little video with a very simple science-based trick that works to stretch out a pair of shoes. You can add around half a size to a full size!
Video Tutorial
You may recall from high school physics class that water expands upon freezing. This method takes advantage of that fact and uses it to stretch your shoes.
What you’ll need:
- Two plastic Ziploc bags
- Some water
- A freezer
Here are the steps:
- Get the pair of shoes that you want to stretch out.
- Fill the plastic bags with enough water that you can stuff them inside your shoes, and they fill out the space inside.
- Put them in the freezer.
- Wait for the water to freeze. As it does this, it expands. This stretches your shoes out.
- Once the water has completely hardened into ice, you can pull your shoes out of the freezer.
- Set them somewhere and wait 20 minutes for them to thaw.
- Remove the bags, and your shoes should be half a size to a size bigger!
In for more clothing hacks? Check out our 57 Clothing Tips, Tricks And Projects That Are Borderline Genius roundup.
And that’s it! It couldn’t be easier, and you know it’s going to work, because it’s science. Video demonstration by Michelle Phan.
Wendy Wray
I actually did this with a brand new, very expensive pair of boots my husband bought me for Christmas 3 years ago. I do NOT recommend doing this if the shoes/boots you are trying to stretch can potentially be forever changed cosmetically. As I waited for the shortest thawing time to pass to take out the bags, the 'sweat' from the thawing process was running into my boots and causing the beautiful leather to get wet and change color .... FOREVER! It's one thing to do this with footwear that can be easily dried and not have the color change when it's wet, it's a totally different issue when lighter, natural leather gets wet. The water 'sweat' left my boots MUCH darker and they also had damage that may have been from our water in general. I was able to get rid of the damage with a LOT of work, but my boots are forever darker. After all of that, it didn't stretch them out at all!!! I'm sure this technique works great on many types of shoes. I wouldn't recommend it for natural leather, unless you can come up with a way to prevent the thaw 'sweat' from running into your shoes. Good luck!
Ted
Sorry to hear you got water stains. When I do this, I put the ziplock bag in a wool sock. The wool sock absorbs the cold sweat just like it does foot sweat. Of course, I only have experience doing this with mens hunting boots and dress shoes, so I don't know if the wool sock trick would work in a woman's boot, but I don't see why not.
MAtea
Ted you are so smart