Boot Heel Plates Squeak?

A friend sent me a question asking how to stop (or reduce) severe cowboy boot heel squeaking that he was hearing.

Most cowboy boot heels have a thin rubber plate attached to the bottom. This rubber plate can easily pick up oil from a surface that you walk on. Even if the surface doesn't look oily, it's possible that some type of oil may be on a roadway, sidewalk, or even a linoleum floor, for that matter. Oil from what you walk on forms a thin film on the rubber plate on the bottom of boot heels. Then you hear a very annoying noise -- squeak, squeak, squeak, when you walk.

It does not take much oil to cause an interaction between the rubber and certain flooring products such as tile, hardwood, or other finished surfaces. The interaction results in that annoying squeaky noise.

To get rid of the noise (or reduce it), try this simple and inexpensive home remedy:

1. Find an old toothbrush or any form of small bristle-brush.

2. Pour a little bit of laundry detergent -- the best type to use is the powder form -- into a small, flat-bottomed, container (dish or bowl.)

3. Drop a few drops of water onto the detergent and mix it with the brush, so you have a paste. It really doesn't have to be any certain consistency. I'm just saying that a paste works better than a liquid.

4. Using the old toothbrush, rub the detergent paste across the bottom of the rubber heel plate. You do not need to create a bubbly foam. What you are doing is using detergent to break down the oil. That's what detergent does (and much better that regular soap, so that's why you should go for the laundry stuff instead of the dishwashing stuff.)

5. Once you have brushed/scrubbed the heel plate with the detergent paste, then rinse the heel plate with water. Remove all residual of the detergent.

6. Let the boot heel plate dry in a well-ventilated area but not in direct sunlight.

Once the boot heel plates are dry, pull your boots on again and see if the squeak is gone.

If you still hear squeaking, then the noise is probably coming from the boot itself, not the heel plate. That's a topic for an entirely different blog post.

Life is short -- hear a good solid cowboy boot heel clunk, not squeak-squeak-squeak!