Q & A, G - I, Craft Tales

Gluing Decorations to Crocs

Sweetpatootie's Question - Hi Crafters, I need your help with a gluing problem.

I am a volunteer at a hospital and work there as a clown. Many of us clowns wear Crocks since they are very comfortable and come in many colors.

Due to the rules of the hospital we must not wear a shoe that has any openings in the top of them and no sandals.

We wear the Crocs' Medical Comfort shoe they sell called "Relief".

Now for my problem. We have made bright flowers and stars, etc. from craft foam and want to glue them on across the toe area of the Crocs. We can not find a glue that adheres to the Crocs material called "croalite" which they say in their information is a closed-cell resin..

I have looked at the directions on Super-Glue but I'm afraid it will melt the foam.

I even called the company this morning asking if they had an idea of the type of glue I could use. They did not.

Since we can't use the Jibbitz that are sold to decorate the Crocs we are at a loss as to what to do. (We want to use a much larger decoration than the Jibbitz.)

We even considered sewing the foam flowers on to the toes of our shoes.

We hope someone else has asked this question and you have an answer for us.

Thanks for any suggestions you have! **Sweetpatootie**

Crafttales Answer - Hi Sweetpatootie,

(Love the name!) Here is what we were able to find out: We tried E6000 Adhesive glue on a material made from the same thing as the Crocs and craft foam. The surfaces needed to be roughed up before applying the glue. They stuck together fairly well, but we were able to pull them apart and I doubt that they would hold flowers on top of shoes for very long. He also tried 3M spray Adhesive, but that was a complete failure; it did not hold at all. Next came more research on the computer. Several people stated in their blogs that they had good success with Super Glue on Crocs, but I don't know how well it would hold these 2 specific materials together. We found that Rubatex Contact Adhesive was used on closed cell foams, and he provided a link below. We also suggest trying local scuba diving shops to see what they use on neoprene (another closed cell foam) wet suits for repairs.

Another approach is use yarn and buttons to attach the craft foam onto the shoes. With this method the shoes are not flawed with glue or holes in them. You can change the decoration at a clown's whim. I've drawn a diagram as how I thought it would work. The yarn can be the same color as the shoes for a little camouflage or green for flower stems. Pompoms, tassels or bells can be tied to the ends of the yarn for added sparkle. (See illustration below)