comments:
Hi, I love these shoes! I've had 6+ or more consecutive pairs of the A-640s for work. With every pair (except my current one), the same crack forms right there, every single time. I think they last about 9 months before the crack gets too big to manage and the shoes have to be replaced. I'm testing a fix that seems to be working. Superglue adheres to the material very well and that works for maybe a few weeks but the crack reappears again right behind the superglue joint. The solution that seems to be working this time: stitching in zip ties to reinforce the fault line, before the crack forms. I put 4 holes in the soles above and below the fault line, in the channels of the tread using this punch set. Then I fed a small zip tie through the holes, as shown. I did this 6 months ago on a brand new pair, and I feel like it's not even starting to crack. I'm pretty sure I'm walking on the zip tie clasps these days, but I can't feel it. Also I don't walk on floors that would be damaged by the plastic of a zip tie, so I'm lucky there. I also have the luxury of having the perfect sized zip ties at work, when installed in the new sole, the clasp sat flush, not proud, of the tread. I did this previously with an already-cracked pair along with superglue, and it worked for a while until the zip tie tore through the sole, letting the crack reopen. My records say it was 14 months before I had to get a new pair. With that new pair I put the stitches in when the shoe was still brand new. I posted this somewhere before but I don't know if it got any traction. good luck, I still love these shoes for my almost-everyday work shoes. Hopefully I can update if/when this reinforcement fails, I'm interested to know how long this extends their life.
I wear the Alpro 640 steel toes, (I think I'm on my 7th pair) same crack along the ball of the foot every few months... the fix is to punch 4 holes in the sole and put two zips in... no cracks so far! this is the first time I put the zipties in before the crack appeared. https://imgur.com/a/vGjnrFH edit: I can link to the punch set on amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08MF3T4YJ?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_1&th=1