A fter having just finished my second day of exploring Vilnius here in Lithuania, I retired to my room at the hotel property and decided to remove my running shoes off of my feet…
Great. The Soles Just Fell Off Both My Running Shoes. Now What?!?
…and the soles fell off. No, not on one of the running shoes — both of them.
I sat there, stunned and angry — but I was thankful that they did not decide to come apart while I was walking outside in the cold winter weather in the middle of spring.
I am not going to mention that the running shoes are the New Balance 530 model which are practically brand new, as I wore them only several times prior to departing on my trip; but I will say that they are not supposed to be a cheap pair of sneakers, as they start just shy of $70.00 per pair.
Wearing a pair of slippers I used from a different hotel property at which I stayed on this trip, I headed down to the front desk of the Holiday Inn Vilnius hotel property — which I will post a review in a future article — with my running shoes to show what had happened; and the woman behind the counter asked me to wait to the side while she contacted a fellow employee to assist me.
That fellow employee brought a tube of super glue which was the size of two fingernails; and its supply was almost exhausted. Still, I used a few drops in strategic spots — and that seemed to work, which is why the photograph at the top of this article does not show the sole completed separated from the rest of the running shoe.
“Do you have a store which sells glue for shoes in Vilnius?” I asked him. He was not sure; so he used his mobile telephone as he asked me to wait.
After about ten minutes, he came back out and informed me that there was a store approximately 15 minutes away by car which sells that type of glue.
“I do not have a car,” I said, “and I would walk if…well…” as I pointed to my now-useless running shoes.
Besides — even if I could walk to the store — the time was approximately 6:00 in the evening; and I might not be able to arrive before closing.
“I will get it for you,” he said, asking if I had any cash. I gave him a 20 euro note. I gave him my room number upon request and told him I would be there.
There was a knock on the door to my room approximately 45 minutes later; and there he was with two tubes of glue and a receipt for 2.54 euro. I thanked him profusely. He never accepted a gratuity.
The glue is currently drying on both of my running shoes. Fortunately, I had no plans to leave the hotel room anyway prior to retiring for the night. I did not even use the contents of an entire tube of glue; so if the running shoes should fail again, I have some back-up available.
Summary
In all of the years during which I have traveled, I have never once had to worry about what I was wearing on my feet. Whatever I wore on my feet took the punishment I dealt, as I prefer walking to virtually any other form of transportation whenever possible.
Prior to leaving for Eastern Europe, I decided to retire the most recent pair of running shoes which have traveled with me, as they were wearing down to the point that I was unsure that they would survive this trip.
I plan on contacting New Balance about what happened; but at this point, I recommend avoiding purchasing running shoes from New Balance — and I do not plan to purchase another pair from the company unless they provide customer service to my satisfaction. That is a shame, as I have used New Balance running shoes for years. To me, New Balance symbolized quality — or, at least, that used to be the case.
If I have any news about this situation, I will post the update in a future article — but I just do no understand how a product called running shoes cannot even withstand walking. Perhaps Kathy Kass of Will Run For Miles or Charles Barkowski of Running For Miles might have some answers for me…
Most of the wear and tear on this running shoe — whose sole separated from the rest of the shoe — was from walking in Helsinki, Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius. All photographs ©2017 by Brian Cohen.
