Creative ways to reuse shoes once they are worn out?

[jeffrey]

Do you have some good ideas on how to give worn out shoes a second life? What do you do with your old shoes?

[GREENBACK]

After my running shoes have reached the end of their road life they begin a new life as grass mowing shoes. They still have lots of life left after their running career is over.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

We have cacti growing in a pair of old garden shoes, but that is meant to be temporary until I decide where I want to plant them in the ground. No hurry--they've been in the shoes a couple years now.

[disneysteve]

After my running shoes have reached the end of their road life they begin a new life as grass mowing shoes. They still have lots of life left after their running career is over.

Same here. My old sneakers become my bum-around, dirty jobs sneakers.

[jeffrey]

Thanks for your suggestions -- I used then in the the list I've started to put together: http://www.savingadvice.com/tips/1/t...old-shoes.html

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Both leather and rubber parts may be used for material to cut out washers and small gaskets.

Leather and rubber could be cut to make ink stamp designs.

Some soft bits might be glued to scratchy bottomed vases, or to the floor-wise surface of chair legs as a cushioning guide.

Old shoestrings can be used to tie things like rolls of wire, to help tie tomatoes in the garden, to bundle up fishing pole in storage. Many uses for a piece of string, after all!

Buckles might sometimes find a use in jewelry making.

Is there anyone who has not tried to use a shoe as a hammer?

I understand they can be quite expressive politically, too. Shoe missiles or podium thumpers, you understand.

I like it when I see places where utility wires or trees are full of pairs of shoes with their laces tied together. It looks light-hearted to me, but some say in some places it is a gang symbol. I wouldn't like it if I saw this often though. Once or twice in a lifetime is enough.

Baubles or flowers off of women's or girls dress shoes or flip flops could perhaps be transferred to straw sunhats, grapevine wreaths, or something.

[vicky91]

Do you have some good ideas on how to give worn out shoes a second life? What do you do with your old shoes?

I have one pair of worn out shoes. What I do with them? Well, I wear them, cause I don't like to walk barefoot everywhere ...

scnr

[hamchan]

I only wear Crocs, and I wear them until I wear holes through the sole. At that point they are not much good for anything. But it takes years unless I wear the same pair every single day.