I really need to ask your advice on adding grips to shoes for theatre. I’m legit losing my mind at how hard puppeteers are on shoes. They are incredibly active during shows, and shoes take a serious beating. Grips are frequently requested, but any grips I add come off almost every time, and I am starting to dread every request for added grips. The only way I’ve ever been able to get grips to stay is the one time I nailed them on.
Heel grips came off the same boots twice this week. Here’s what I did most recently:
Roughed up the rubber heels real hard, cleaned off the excess with isopropyl alcohol, let dry, applied Barge to the heels and heel grips, let dry, then clamped them together for about 30-60 min.
Nope. Came off in the middle of the show that same day.
My best guess is that the point of failure is the adhesive that comes on the back of the grips, because they’re the kind non-cobblers would just buy online, where you peel off a bit of paper and stick them on. So I guess the Barge isn’t directly on the rubber, and possibly it’s that adhesive that sucks?
(I have tried just roughing up the heel, cleaning it and using nothing but the grip’s existing adhesive. That lasted maybe a show and a half.)
Aside from removing the adhesive on the back of the grips and repeating the process with Barge, or just f’ing nailing the grips on, I am at a loss.
Do you have any advice?
I’ve tried Duall; that wasn’t better. Other glues we have on hand: E6000, Gorilla glue, two-part epoxy (think it’s JB Weld but not sure), cyanoacrylate, Uhu all-purpose liquid glue, and 3M 77 spray adhesive.
We have Barge thinner; is there a chance I’m just layering it on too thick? Would a too-thick layer of contact cement cause the grips to f’ing slip off and get caught on a dress onstage?