Last Friday, I first used these Dr. Martens boots and they left me with few blisters on my left foot. I went home wearing a different pair of shoes because even when I tried wearing them, I just walked limply and there was no good running in the rain with an ‘injured’ foot.
So for this weekend, I had the opportunity to finally speed up the breaking in process. These boots were not new to begin with, and they might appear to have broken in already but they were not. How much again is a pair of Doc Martens in the Philippines? I’m not paying Php 5,000+ for that.
Prepped these Doc Martens by stuffing them with old, knobbly gym socks!
The night before, I have prepped these Doc Martens for breaking in by stuffing them with several thick, old and knobbly gym socks. I think the one in the picture above had two pairs of gym socks to better stretch the leather part where my heel became murdered.
Taming the Doc Martens boots with Vaseline petroleum jelly, flat iron and a candle!
I used some Vaseline Petroleum Jelly, candle wax, and a flat iron to soften the heel of the boots. Ideally, a much narrower heating device should be used but as we don’t have any curling iron, I just squeezed in the tip of the flat iron over that part.
Spreading liberal amounts of petroleum jelly, I waited for the sizzling sound which means the melting of the ‘jelly’ into the leather. After letting it cool down, I then dropped candle wax into the same area and carefully bent it back and forth.
Worn these boots to bed, pointed my toes and even stood on my tippy-toes!
After letting the leather settle down for a few minutes, the next process was the one I’ve read most about advice to break in Doc Martens — wearing it down!
The usual wearing them the whole day with multiple socks (even to bed), pointing your feet back and forth (I’m quite good at this given my dance background but the boots were giving a good fight) and even standing on my tippy-toes just to break that leather in.
My Doc Martens, finally broken in!
And my hard work finally paid off! I tried putting them on with the socks I would normally wear, walked around and can’t feel any pain on my heels. Mission accomplished!
P.S.
It also helps that the shoelaces are knotted tightly so the feet won’t be moving around and get scraped relentlessly.
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