Softening up new shoes

[ArnoldArmChewer]

Going back to Roman times they used to pay you for your urine for this purpose. They would have sections of towns that specialised in certain skills and the leather area always gets a mention in books because of the smell.

At the risk of an infraction, is this where the term 'taking the p***' comes from ?

 

[Lord Tyrion]

I suspect it genuinely is. There would be pots left for people to use and when they were full enough someone came along to take............

 

[ArnoldArmChewer]

I suspect it genuinely is. There would be pots left for people to use and when they were full enough someone came along to take............

Thanks for that, its always fascinating to learn where everyday sayings originate from.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

There are books on explaining sayings but I think they take some of the fun out of discovering their meaning by accident.

 

[srixon 1]

Just wear them for practicing at first.

 

[Deleted Member 1156]

Just wear them for practicing at first.

Practice?? :mmm:

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Practice?? :mmm:

I'm lucky in that all my FJ's have always fitted well straight from the box but I had a pair of adidas that like you had one shoe that crippled me and I tried stretching with shoe horns, rubbing dubbin in and all everything (not urinating on them though) and could never get it soft and supple enough to wear on the course. Ended up as a very expensive pair of range shoes. I hoped using them on the range hitting shots would help flex the leather but they never ever, felt comfy or gave

 

[ArnoldArmChewer]

If all else fails you could ask a cobbler to take a look/stretch the shoe a bit.

 

[PhilTheFragger]

Revisiting the leather widdling topic, you are doing it all wrong.
When I was in the Army the QM advice was to widdle INSIDE your boots and leave it overnight.
In the morning, empty and rinse out ( I know one bloke who forgot the "empty" bit, now that was funny) put your socks on and wear them, the leather will be softer and will mould to the shape of your foot.

This obviously doesn't work on non leather products, but it really does work, although I have never had to resort to it yet with golf shoes, but it sounds like little brother might benefit from this approach 😎