If you’re reading this, then a mishap must have happened and you ended up with a pair of tight kicks. It’s alright though because accidents happen, and you can easily fix them! Today, you’re gonna learn how to stretch sneakers to avoid some tight situations. There are many options for you, some require purchasing stuff, while others are DIY. Whatever the way, you’ll definitely find something helpful for your case! So, shall we?
How to Not Reach Desperate Times
First off, try to make sure you know how to correctly measure your shoe size. But you can’t always avoid sudden problems, especially when buying your kicks online for the first time. Luckily, some guides can help you find the right fit according to each brand or silhouette. And well, we have them all right here:
- Air Jordan size guide
- Nike Dunk size guide
- Yeezy size guide
- Adidas size guide
- New Balance size guide
Too Late for the Right Fit? Here’s How to Stretch Sneakers!
Some Obvious but Reliable Ways
Break Them In
Sometimes, shoes need some breaking into even if they’re the correct size. So before you resort to drastic measures, wear your kicks for a whole day, especially in the evening. That usually helps break the material in, which will make it less stiff. If that doesn’t work, then you can start looking at your other options!
Shoe Stretchers
Of course, shoe stretchers will come to mind when you’re thinking about stretching a shoe. This method usually requires you to leave your kicks with the stretcher in for around 3 days. You can buy those off any marketplace like Amazon. Stretcher shoe trees can cost anywhere between $10 to hundreds of dollars, depending on how professional you’re going. Meanwhile, a shoe stretcher spray’s price can start from $8 onwards. And if you’re serious about stretching your kicks, you can get both!
Find a Cobbler and Rest Easy
If you don’t mind paying around $15, you can always take your kicks to a cobbler. First, the wait time will be less than doing it yourself at home. And second, why go through the trouble if there’s a cobbler right around the corner? So, if you’re not a DIY kinda person, this is the best method for you.
How to Stretch Sneakers – DIY Options for the Handy
Blow Dryers Ain’t Just for Hair
Well, seems like hair dryers are helpful from head to toe! The trick here is to wear your sneakers with 2 pairs of thick socks. If that’s not feasible, one should do fine too. Next, blow dry the whole area on medium heat for 20-30 seconds intervals and then switch sides. Finally, make sure you wiggle your foot while you’re at it!
Ziploc Bag – Give ‘Em the Cold Treatment
We hope you know your basic laws of physics because you’ll need them for this one. What you need to do here is to get two Ziploc bags and fill them halfway with water. Next, insert them inside your kicks, and make sure they’re all the way in. Then, put your kicks in the freezer because when water freezes, it expands. And poof! Your kicks will stretch to accommodate the ice!
Potatoes Are More Than Food
No, but you’ll wanna hear us out with this one. You can use a peeled potato to stretch your sneakers! All you gotta do is peel it, mold it to your sneaker’s shape, and put it in the kicks. Leave the kicks overnight, and you’ll be able to get a decent stretch out of it. Of course, it’s not as effective as other methods, but it’ll give your feet some breathing room.
Now That You Know How to Stretch Sneakers…
You’ll probably wanna know how to keep them like that! Of course, the most obvious way is to wear them. But if you wanna take extra precautions, shoe trees can come to your rescue! Of course, if you learned how to remove creases from kicks, then you probably own one. If you don’t, then now is the time to learn how to uncrease sneakers!
So, now that you have all that knowledge at your fingertips, you gotta invest in kicks! Of course, to do that you’ll need an awesome sneaker bot like NSB3. From Shopify all the way to Nike SNKRS, the new modules will kickass! And why bother with solving Captcha when AI can do it for you? You can read more about that here. But if you’re ready to take your love for sneakers to the next level, then go ahead and grab your NSB copy now! Godspeed