Well, I did it, I stepped in my glue trap and these are my favorite shoes.  I’m also thrifty so I don’t like throwing good stuff away.  So when I stepped in my mouse glue trap I knew I had to figure out a way to get that sticky thing off my shoe…

How to Remove Glue Trap From Shoe

Tools/Materials Needed:

• Smooth Bladed Knife (non-serrated)
• Goo Gone
• Paper Towels
• Saucony Men’s Progrid Ride 5 Running Shoe (if you like want a pair like mine, without the glue trap!)
• Glue Trap

Step 1: Peel the glue trap off your shoe.

There’s nothing pretty about this.  Do you best and try to avoid getting it on your hands if you can!

Step 2: Use a knife to scrape the majority off your shoe.

I used my pocket knife that has a smooth thin blade that wasn’t razor-sharp.  We’re not going to be “cutting” the glue off but bluntly scraping it off with the edge of the knife at pretty much a 90-degree angle to the surface of the shoe.  Scrape the glue towards the middle as to not spread it out.  It will ball up in the middle for you:

and then you can get it off:

Wipe off the glue on a paper towel.  You should scrape some more and make another ball and repeat.

Step 3: Work Goo Gone into the glue.

I’ve seen people prescribe vegetable oil for some situations but I didn’t want my shoe oily on the bottom so that is why I went with Goo Gone.  Spray some on the shoe and work the Goo Gone into the glue with your fingertip:

I tried putting a layer of tape around the perimeter of my shoe to keep the goo gone from leaking over the edge but goo gone works good on adhesives, duh!  The tape didn’t work and came off.

Step 4: Use your knife to scrape the surface of the shoe clean.

Use short scraping motions, working your way across the sole of your shoe.  When you accumulate enough on the blade of your knife wipe off on a paper towel.

It’s coming off:

Step 5: Repeat Step 3 and Step 4

After completing Steps 3 and 4 and allowing the shoe to dry I could tell that there was still more glue on the shoe.  At this point we are trying to work out the glue from the pores of the shoe.  Repeat Steps 3 and 4 to work the rest of the glue off the shoe.  If you see any shiny places, that is an indicator that there’s some glue still on it.  I had to work it out of the seams and cracks but it was not that difficult really.

Step 6: Put on your clean shoe

I was able to get it clean!