Trying To Repair My Teva Sandals – Senegal Travel Diary #15

After 4 years of tromping around the globe with my Teva Sandals, they have finally given in to wear and tear. BUT…I think I can save them. I didn’t get an art degree and learn all about working with a odd variety of materials for nothing.

In this video I share travel tips while trying to repair my trusty Tevas.

*On some of the links provided I might make a commission if you purchase something by clicking through my link. This creates no additional cost for you.

Here’s a link to find your own awesome pair of Tevas: https://bit.ly/3KJ2qi3
(Yes, we’ll get a commission if you buy through our link. Thanks.)

These Tevas have been through jungle, ocean and desert and spent thousands of miles on my feet. I’ve got to do everything I can to save them.

Wish me luck.

Video Transcript

  • I am currently in Saint-Louis,

spelled Saint-Louis, for you Americans,

but it’s Saint-Louis, Senegal.

And my Tevas have finally given out.

Now let me say something about Tevas.

See this, this broke.

Let me say something about Tevas.

First of all, my very
first pair of Tevas I had

and it lasted like 10 years.

And this was when I
was just living in L.A.

They were awesome.

I didn’t wear them a
hundred percent of the time,

but 10 years was amazing.

These, I have gotten four years out of.

But this is four years of world travel.

This is Southeast Asia.

This is climbing temples.

This is going through the
Sahara Desert on a camel,

when we came back over to Africa.

And going on bridges,

rope bridges.

Climbing in and out of tuk-tuks,

and everything else that we’ve been doing

on our four years of travel here.

So, this is not disparaging to Teva.

These sandals have been through heck,

and they just finally gave up.

And in fact,

I think Lac Rose was the
thing that finally did it.

‘Cause even though they got
rinsed off after Lac Rose

Lac Rose is super salty.

So I wouldn’t be surprised if

that had to do with the
quickened demise of these Tevas.

I’m gonna tell you what
I’m gonna try and do

and then I’m gonna show you

what you end up doing a lot as a traveler.

It’s gonna look like this crafty thing,

except I’m gonna give you
a whole lot of travel tips

as we go along doing this demo.

My theory, is that if I
fill this whole section

with a two-part epoxy

and then put this piece
back in where it belongs

and then let it dry for like two days.

My theory is that it will
work, that it may fix it.

If anything’s gonna fix
it, that’s gonna fix it.

It is starting to crack though,

so I’m a little concerned

that they may just be beyond repair.

That’s an entire possibility.

But, let me tell you a few things

about finding things.

As I say, love the Tevas.

Hey Teva, if you’re listening
if you want to send me

a new pair of Tevas ’cause
I don’t think I can get any

out here where I am right now.

Find me, contact me, and
I will get you an address.

We’ll find some way to get them to us

’cause I love your shoes,

I would love to get some
more as soon as I can.

But if you wanna send them to me, awesome.

Okay.

So, a couple of things.

First of all, I got some two-party epoxy.

This alone was an adventure.

You go and you ask for glue

and everyone wants to give you Krazy Glue.

And then you have to sit there.

And this is a language barrier issue

’cause my French is not good enough.

It’s not their fault,

it’s my fault for my
French not being better.

But even when you start explaining it,

you have to explain you need a glue.

Then they think tape

’cause the word is similar or the same.

And then you get to glue
and they go Krazy Glue.

No, I need a thick glue.

And then I have to say the two-part,

’cause I’ve always found two-part epoxies.

If anything’s gonna fix it, it’s these.

And thick glues could be anything.

The other day I had three
people trying to help me

to decipher what I wanted.

I was just in this little local market,

this little strip that
runs behind this hotel.

And I had three people trying
to help me to figure it out,

and one guy took off and came back,

first came back with a Super Glue,

which was like Krazy Glue.

And it’s like, “No, no I can’t
use that. It’s too thin.”

And then he came back with this

and it cost me about a
little less than four bucks

and I am happy as can
be. Hopefully it’ll work.

So the thing is, with descriptions,

is you’ve gotta be really prepared

to describe it in stages sometimes

and also in different ways.

If one explanation doesn’t work,

you gotta come up with another one.

Another set of words,
another way to describe it.

And sometimes it can take a
while to get your point across.

And sometimes, sometimes
you give up and walk away

’cause it’s not that important,
but this was important.

So I’m gonna go ahead and
get started mixing this

’cause you mix this

and then it has a five minute open window.

I will tell you,

if you’ve seen my video
on my horrible haircut,

you might see I’m starting
to get some bangs back.

They’re still a little uck.

I just got it recut.

I just got my hair recut and
it’s a little short still.

But, he has cut it in
a shape that is clean,

it’s good, it’s even, it’s
gonna grow out nicely.

So I wanted to let you know

if you’ve been following my hair saga

which I’m not usually really big on,

that is underway of repair.

So let me show you,

our kit.

The glue came with a little
stick, so I got a mixing stick.

This is a bag from a bakery.

And I’m using it to work on so
I don’t mess up their table.

I’ve got a cardboard, which is
from a tube of toilet paper.

Just in case I need
somewhere else to work.

Also, the container that the glue came in

makes actually a little good mixing bowl.

Both of those, the cardboard or the thing.

And then of course, forever the best wipe.

The best thing, tissue wipe, napkin,

everything you ever need tissue
for, just get toilet paper.

It’s the easiest thing in the world.

This is the travelers craft kit.

And I’m gonna try mixing
it in the little tray.

And I have pre-opened it.

They have the things
where you poke through.

If you haven’t done crafts
before and you don’t know this,

the little point in there
pokes through the little foil

that’s closed up when you get into it.

So, oh gosh, I hope this is not futile.

Okay, there we go.

It’s liquid.

It’s liquid. We’re good.

I’m putting out a fair amount.

More than I normally
would when using epoxy,

because I have to fill that entire area.

And I’m gonna put that one there

and hope that one comes out okay. Okay.

And you mix about two equal parts.

Either one by themselves is not sticky.

It is not until you mix them together,

that they become active.

If you know your arts and
crafts, you know this.

And if you don’t,

I will tell you epoxies are about the best

hardcore repair for anything.

I’ve done ceramics.

I’ve done all sorts of
things over the years,

I was an art major.

I’ve had lots of causes
to discover these things.

So, let’s see what I can do here.

It’s actually in really good shape.

It’s not too thick. It’s not old.

One of the things I
would be concerned about

in Africa, honestly, is you
can buy something and it’s old.

It’s been sitting there a while.

This happens a lot.

Like if you go to buy some
chips or something else,

and it’s just been
sitting there a long time.

And that could have been
the case with the glue.

Okay. It looks like we’re
pretty well-filled there.

And this is part one.

There will be a part two,

when we’re going to see if it worked.

So keep an eye out for part two.

Part two will be a short little video

when we just basically…

It probably only needs
an hour or 24 hours.

I might give it 48 before I test it.

Because once this is so-called repaired,

it is going to take a lot of abuse.

And I like these shoes especially,

because they have this really thick sole

and they’re really good for walking.

And I walk around cities.

I walk around everywhere.

I mean, these are the shoes
I wear 70% of the time

when I’m traveling now.

This is why these are so important.

70% of my time

with my time walking, is in these shoes.

I love my other shoes,

but the sandals are nice
’cause they’re cooler.

Simple as that, they’re cooler.

I don’t have to wear socks.

I can pop them on and go out.

Like every morning here I have
to go out and get breakfast

and you don’t know how annoying it is

to actually have to put on shoes and socks

to go out and get breakfast.

Just to walk across the street
and buy some coconut donuts

or some Touba coffee.

And I have to actually put
on real shoes to do that.

I’m mixing a little more,

’cause I’m realizing
there’s a little space here.

So we’re gonna see if I
can get a little more.

Now I’ve got some on my fingers.

I’ll get that wiped off safely.

We’re just gonna pile a little more in.

Isn’t this exciting?

This is what you end up
doing when you travel.

When you’re traveling full-time

and you gotta fix things on the fly,

you do what you can with what you got.

Okay, yeah.

Everything’s still moving.

This is supposed to be a five minute set.

So I’ve got another minute or two

before it starts to dry up.

And also with it be being
so thick and so solid,

they say five minute set,

but they’re talking about
putting a thin coat on each side

and holding something together.

This is an absolute pool of it.

That’s another reason
why I’m gonna let it sit

for more like 48 hours.

And it’s not really designed
to be used this way but,

hey,

this is one of those,

“Hey, we’re gonna try it
and see what happens.”

Make sure that’s all in there.

They do sell some nice sandals here.

Might as well talk to you a little bit.

They do sell some nice sandals here.

They have nice leather.

They actually have some real leather work.

We’re in Senegal, which is
two countries below Morocco.

Morocco’s known for its leather work.

And it seems that some of that
has transported down here.

The thing is, is the
soles are fairly thin.

And I do a lot of walking in these

and a lot of heavy walking.

And I’m a little concerned
about the soles being

too thin on those.

They’re not crazy thin,
but they’re thin enough

that I’m concerned about
whether they’ll be comfortable.

And hey, I’m not a lightweight person.

So a thicker sole really serves me well.

So that’s why I’m trying to save these

before I go off and buy
a new pair of sandals.

I’m not sure what I’m gonna
buy if this doesn’t work.

I have not decided if I’m
just gonna go with flip flops.

I like something attached to my foot.

If I’m gonna go modern,

and rubber and nylon
and that kind of thing,

or if I’m gonna try the leather ones.

So that’s undecided at this point.

I’m holding this down a little bit.

Just hoping that we get to a set point.

So yeah,

this is my Teva.

I’m using a mix of
tripod and handheld here.

So those are some travel lessons.

I’ve always told you
that I’m gonna tell you

the truth about travel

and show you the good and the bad.

Bad that it broke,

but we’re gonna do this
experiment and see if it works.

And I’m gonna show you
all aspects of travel.

I have another thing
to show you real soon.

I might even do this other
live as soon as I finish this.

There’s that shirt I bought in Dakar.

I had it made.

I said I bought it.

I had some fabric and I had it made,

and I have not tried it on yet.

For various reasons, I
have not tried it on yet.

And I am going to maybe shoot that video,

if not today, tomorrow.

And we’re gonna be back
in Dakar in a few days.

On Monday we’re heading out.

And so if it doesn’t fit well,

I could probably go back
to the tailor and say,

“Hey, can you adjust this?
Can you adjust that?”

And then we’re gonna be off to The Gambia.

So I still have a bunch of
videos to edit and all that

but we’re very much on the move.

And so that’s why I do these lives,

so you can keep up with things.

And yesterday we went to
the Djoudj Bird Sanctuary.

That live will be republished

within the next week or two.

But always keep an eye out for the lives

because you never know
when they’re gonna happen.

And I know for U.S. people,

it’s probably happening
in the middle of the night

because it’s flat out daytime for us here.

But keep an eye out for our lives.

As I say, we were at the bird sanctuary,

and there were pelicans and cormorants

and all sorts of birds everywhere.

Great white herons, oh, we saw
a lot of great white herons.

And so, I’m always gonna publish

the lives a little bit later, again.

But if you wanna see them as they happen,

just truly, truly live,
like this video right now,

if you’re seeing the live version.

We lost connection in there somewhere.

So come back for part two.

And also subscribe.

Do me a favor,

if you can remember, if you don’t mind,

subscribe to the channel.

‘Cause we could really use it.

And when we get to 500 subscribers,

we get this cool community
tab that opens up

and I’m gonna have a whole bunch of stuff,

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Talk to you guys.

And we can talk about travel more

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So we could really use some subscribers.

So, hit that button and
we’ll see you next time.

And we will see if this
experiment to fix my Tevas, works.

Or, if some awesome person at Teva

wants to send me some sandals,

get in touch.

I’ll see you next time.

Thanks for joining.

Bye.

Trina Phillips

I've been traveling to off-the-beaten-path destinations for more than 20 years. Now I'm sharing my continuing adventures in Africa.

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