Top Lift supplier? Other forums?

[Bob Powers]

Greetings ladies and gentlemen, I'm a vintage/classic dress shoe lover, and in AMATEUR cobbler. I repair my collection of 14 (and growing) dress shoes, as well as occasionally do it for friends. I generally do not make any profit at this, and don't intend to. I do it for fun and to help my friends improve their "shoe game" on a budget. People in the Midwest US here have horrible shoes!

 

I have replaced the top lifts on about 15 pairs of shoes so far, but the problem I'm running into now is I'd like to redo the top lifts on my Allen Edmonds (I know they have a re-crafting service, but I want to do it myself). The Goodyear Neolite top lifts I've used are not only too narrow, but they're also too thick. They are 1/4 thick; I need 3/16"/5 mm/10 iron. Everywhere I've looked that sells to the public such as eBay, Leather & Grindery, or Itshide only has 7mm or 8mm. JR Rendenbach shows on their website a beautiful 5mm leather rubber combo top lift, so I called them, but they do not sell to the public, so they gave me the contact info for a couple distributors. Both of which were rude to me because I'm not a shop.

 

http://www.lederfabrik-rendenbach.de/1/jr-leather-products/pre-assembled-units/heels/

Click on "dovetail"

 

Can anyone help me locate some smaller volumes (less than a dozen per year) of top lifts? I would prefer leather/rubber, but all rubber would be OK too. I even called Allen Edmonds, and they will not sell their top lifts un-installed even though I know of a cobbler on Instagram who installs AE heels. They need to be at least 3-5/8" wide x at least 3-7/8" long.

 

Also, does anyone else know of any other good cobbler's forums? They are hard-to-find.

THANK YOU. I'm here to learn!!

Bob

[Bob Powers]

I thought I'd post an update... after months of searching, someone referred me to Landwerlen Leather in Indianapolis, IN, USA 317-636-8300. They are old school, don't have a website, but they do have an Instagram page @landwerlenleather and are on Facebook. They were able to provide mw with a piece of 16"x24" soling leather and rubber, both 10 iron thick (perfect!) here's my 1st time doing my own leather rubber combo heels:

[Flash]

Problem is where you are based, many of us could supply your needs, the transportation costs????? 

[Euroleathers 2000]

You can go to Euroleathers, they are based in northampton 

[Bob Powers]

Akron, Ohio, USA, thanks!