Shoe stretchers

Most people have had shoes that pinch a bit in places, making them uncomfortable to wear. Here you'll find products that allow you to stretch your shoes yourself, with our effective and easy-to-use shoe stretchers, which are best used in conjunction with a leather softener to make the leather easier to stretch. With our stretchers, you can either stretch the shoes on the width more generally, or at a specific point such as at the pinky toe or similar.

The leather softeners we offer, Tarrago Sneakers Expander and Saphir Shoe-Eze, are made to ensure that the fibres of the leather relaxes and can be stretched out more easily, allowing for both gentler and greater stretch of the leather. The risk of the leather getting small cracks and similar is reduced with a leather softener. These can also be used to break in shoes more quickly, and make them mould more easily to the foot.

How do I stretch out shoes myself?

Using our shoe stretcher is easy. For the best effect and to avoid the risk of damaging the leather unnecessarily, we recommend using a leather softener such as Tarrago Sneakers Expander (works for shoes other than sneakers too, of course) and Saphir Shoe-Eze, or any other product that softens the leather and makes it stretch more easily. If you want to apply extra pressure in a specific area, start by adding the appropriate plastic plug that comes with the stretchers. You can also use several of these at once, if you wish.

Then spray the area to be stretched with the leather softener, both on the outside and inside. Then insert the shoe stretcher and position it so that it lies against the area to be stretched, turning the heel part out so that it's positioned correctly. If the shoe has a hard toe stiffener, the stretcher should not be pushed too far forward in the shoe, as it will not be possible to stretch the hard cap, only the leather behind the toe stiffener. Then tighten the clamping screw so that the leather starts to stretch out, and the resistance increases. Feel at the front of the shoe to make sure it stretches the way you want, if necessary loosen the screws and reposition the stretcher, then re-tighten it. Pull so that it clearly stretches the leather, but not too hard that you risk damaging it.

Then leave the shoe for a day with the stretcher in it. After this, spray with leather softener again on the area to be stretched, and twist the screw so that the block expands further. This can be repeated a number of times if necessary, but it's a good idea to let the leather expand gradually and not try to push it all out at once, as you risk creating cracks in the leather. It's also a good idea to moisturise the leather during the process to reduce the risk of small cracks, for example with Saphir Medaille d'Or Leather Lotion.

Repeat the procedure on the other shoe if there are problems with both. Please note that some types of leather, so-called corrected grain which has a thin plastic film on the surface, usually can't be stretched without cracking the plastic film. With shoes that are more challenging for some reason, we recommend that you take them to a cobbler to have them stretched.

For clearer guidance with pictures, please see this guide.

Can I stretch shoes made of fabric?

It is possible to stretch shoes made of textile, but it depends very much on the type of fabric they are made of. Therefore, always be extra careful when stretching fabric shoes, otherwise follow the description above.

Can you stretch out boots?

With our stretchers for boots you can easily stretch shoes with higher shafts.

How much can you stretch shoes?

The sad answer is that it depends, as several parameters play a role in how much shoes can be stretched. These include the type of leather (or fabric) the shoes are made of, where and how you want to stretch them, and more. As a guideline, shoes made of regular leather can be stretched 0.5-1 size in width, but this can vary.

Can shoes be stretched lengthwise?

In general, it's not possible to stretch shoes lengthwise significantly, as most shoes have some kind of harder stiffeners at the toe and heel. If the stiffeners are made of real leather, they are malleable to some extent, but still not so that you can change the length of the shoe more than very marginally.