How to repair 1960s shoes?

[Joji Furukawa]

I found this sweet little pair of 1960s velvet shoes in gold and blue. Unfortunately, there is a dry layer of once springy foam that is disintegrating into dust. How should I fix this? Should I try to have them repaired or sell them as is? Is this an easy fix or does it require expertise? Any tips or help would be appreciated. The rest of the shoe is in very good condition with little wear so it would be a shame if they went to waste.

 

[Midge]

Cute shoes! Does the foam just stick to the shoe, or to the back side of the sock too? I'm not a shoe specialist and maybe someone has a better idea, but I would take the sock out, and try to get that foam out and put the sock back in and disclose when selling that the foam in between was removed. They definitely look too pretty to throw away!

 

[Pinkcoke]

Because they are already missing some of the foam, the level will be uneven if the sock was stuck back down around it, so I would remove as much of it as you can. It certainly doesn't warrant throwing the shoes away, but it is annoying to have to dust your feet when wearing footwear that has disintegrating lining - and you can't really go barefoot in them either because of that.
It was probably a thin foam liner to prevent the wearer feeling the screw? heads you can see underneath, and provide a little padding. I don't know about elsewhere, but here in the UK you can buy foam insoles inexpensively to cut down and add yourself (they are usually a little thicker though). If you can find a thin one you could replace what was there - it looks to have been a narrower shape to allow the sock to be stuck down to the base inside around the foam. You might ask a cobbler if they have something like it.

 

[Joji Furukawa]

Hi Karin, the foam is stuck only to the shoe. The sock has a think layer of netting that is in contact with the foam. It isn't too hard to scrape out, so I could probably remove it. Also, Melanie you are right that the layer is very narrow to stick the sock around it and I could probably replace it also. Thank you two for the suggestions!