They didn’t stock this for use as soling, of course, but the grey hall runner (sku – 195-339) found on a big roll in the carpet department)
Multy Home Gray 2 ft. 2 in. x Your Choice Length Track Runner
looks like a good material to use as children’s shoe soling. At $2.27/26″ x 12″, quite a few affordable soles can be cut from a piece just one foot wide.
Use it with the rubbery-side down and the fuzzy-side up; you might want to use a piece of leather or felted fiber over the fuzzy side if your child doesn’t like the feel of it.
It’s totally flexible, so a child can feel as if she or he has bare feet in footwear made with this soling. I am convinced this is so important for growing feet.
This soling has no ecological merit – it’s 100% polypropylene. However, if you are making footwear for your family and friends you are hopefully decreasing the importation of a much bigger quantity of this stuff, which would be used to make a typical child’s shoe sole – and maybe the entire shoe as well (crocs etc). There are so many ethical points-of-view involved that for me, using this would be OK. However, I do sell natural rubber sheets for those of you who would prefer for your footwear to be totally kid and earth-friendly.
And, convenience; how many of you are more than five minutes from Home Depot?!
