How $1,000 Louboutins are professionally restored

• Christian Louboutin's high heels are one of the most recognizable pumps in the industry.
• The famous red-painted soles are an iconic feature of the shoes, but are extremely delicate.
• Vincent Rao Jr. is the owner of Vince's Village Cobbler in New York City and he shows us how he restores the iconic red bottoms and turns a worn down pair of $1,000 Louboutin heels into like new condition.

The following is a transcript of the video.

[hammer tapping] My name is Vincent. I work at Vince's Village Cobbler. And today, I'm gonna be showing you how to restore a pair of patent leather Louboutin high heels.

As you can see, there is some visual damage. The sole has been completely worn. Now, a lot of these high-end shoes, such as Louboutin, are manufactured with the leather soles. However, when you have a painted sole, such as this one, the paint's gonna wear right off as soon as you take a few steps. The bottoms of Louboutins are some of the most delicate soles I've ever witnessed. It's very, very fragile and really isn't meant to be walked on cement and concrete. And we'll add what they call a sole protector, which is a thin rubber sheet. So, this pair of shoes originally was worth about $1,000 if you were to find it at your local store. Now, in the condition that it's in, after it's been worn pretty well, I would say you can probably find these for around $250 to $300.

All right. So, here, I have the shoe marked on the bottom where I'm gonna make my groove to install the sole protector. You then sand down the entire sole. That way you thin it down a little bit. Now we're gonna be adding some glue, once the sole has already been sanded. Now, when you're applying the glue, you don't want to be adding too much because then the glue, when it dries, is gonna cake, which can lead to the sole coming off as you're walking later on, and you're not gonna want that. And then once that's all done and dry, then you can apply everything together. And get it glued in all around. Take your knife. Sorry. [chuckles] "Your knife." Your hammer. And start applying the sole nice and evenly all around the shoe. Now I will be cutting the axis of the sole. We're gonna do a little bit more sanding and make it a lot more smoother on the side. That way there's nothing sticking out.

Most Louboutins are extremely high-heeled. Most of them are 6 inches. There's a rod inside the heel. That's called a pipe. It's usually made out of steel, and these pipes, the longer they are, the better chance that they break. These heels are so thin that once they've worn through, you'll start to see the metal exposed. You know, that means the heel is pretty much busted. It needs to be replaced. So, with this specific pair, the heel was definitely showing some of the metal.

We're going to just simply remove the top lift here. Now we have this metal bit exposed. We're gonna be using a hammer and also a grabbing tool. And then you're gonna hammer it down. That way the pipe completely comes out and detaches from the actual shoe. [hammer tapping] OK, then we're going to take some glue after we've taken the heel off and apply just a bit of glue, just like that. We're gonna have to touch up all around. [hammer tapping] This gets the material, which has been exposed, back down with the rest of the leather. So it's all even all around. [hammer tapping] Now that we have the shoe back on the stilt here, I'm going to install our heel. Once it's in nice and secure, just hammer it right in. Make sure it's straight. [hammer tapping] And just like that, you got a new heel.

So, Louboutin tends to use a specific proprietary red color on their shoes that they do not allow anyone else to obtain. We have to mix three colors. We mix a red, scarlet red, and a flat white. We're gonna finish off with a nice cleaning. So we're gonna use some patent leather spray and a nice rag. [spray hissing] Just apply about this much. And just kind of go to town on the patent leather. OK, now that we're done with that, we're gonna add some thinner to help out with the inside. And we're gonna finish off with some deodorizer. [spray hissing] Just a few sprays. And you're done.

A lot of people will buy Louboutins. They'll scuff up the bottoms. They'll have a couple of marks and assume the shoes are done. And they'll go in and give them up to a consignment shop. And somebody will come along and realize that the shoe can actually very well be restored. You know, it's nice to have a shoe that you can show off your efforts and your work and walk around and be proud of it. And people find that in Louboutins a lot. And I see it, and I get it.