I repaired my own tire sandals

I bought some Vietnamese tire sandals a while back. They did not fit. The straps went through slits that went through the sole. Little ends of the straps stuck out through the bottom. It felt strange to walk on them. And because the straps went through the sole, the sandals were narrower than the sole and they cut into my wide feet.

I attempted to loosen the straps so that the sandals would fit better but I accidentally broke one. Every attempt to try and slide the strap back into the slit failed. I thought I ruined the sandals. They've been sitting in my closet for close to a year now, broken.

I browsed around google images for pictures of homemade sandals, handmade sandals and similar searches and stumbled on an African person wearing tire sandals. Their sandals had the straps nailed to the outside edge. I decided I would try that. I had just enough little nails in the garage to put all the straps back on. They feel pretty secure and fit well.

I may add more nails so that they are more secure. Or I may buy some leather scraps from Art from Scrap and make the sandals more stylish.

I kind of have this obsession lately to learn how to make my own shoes. Or at least to make my own sandals. I ordered a pair of real hiking boot soles and plan to make some hiking sandals. I like hiking in Chacos except the sole has very little traction. I fell down about 5 times on my hikes this summer. A couple of times I fell very badly. I'm going to make my own hiking sandals.

These tire sandals have no real tread. I think they made them from motorcycle tires and then just cut phony cross-hatches to simulate a tread. It doesn't even look like they tried to make the tread look real. So they won't work for hiking. But I am glad I fixed them. I almost threw them in the trash.