Removing Shoe Sale Price Stickers – Why So Difficult?

I‘m just going to say I paid less than this sale sticker says but even if I didn’t, this is a pretty good sale price for Lanvin Ballerina Flats at Nordstrom Fashion Valley, which almost never go on sale. Oh and Lanvin Ballerina’s run small, I actually wear a 9 in real life.

I thought about blacking out the sale price and not showing the brand, but decided leaving them on emphasizes my point. I HATE it when major department stores put these next to impossible to remove sale stickers on the bottom of shoes, once they go on sale. I mean $440 is a lot to pay for a pair of ballerina flats. Just because you mark them down, does it really make it acceptable to put these frustrating stickers on the bottom? I mean these are $440 shoes and it’s not my fault you couldn’t shift your inventory fast enough! I shouldn’t have to scrape a sale sticker off the soles.

These stickers don’t just peel off. In fact, they are perforated so you have to peel them off in sections. After that, there’s the sticky residue to deal with. I used to leave the residue, but then started feeling my shoes stick to floors when I walked. Then it looks really weird, screaming “I bought these shoes on sale” when you see a rectangle on the bottom of someone’s shoes, where the sale sticker used to be, that’s so encrusted with dirt, etc. that it’s an entirely different color.

These Lanvin ballerinas have been sitting in my closet for 2 months, because I was procrastinating sticker removal. I Googled “shoe sticker removal” and up popped threads by people with similar problems. Except they all swore that it was the cheap stores that did this and if there were buying designer shoes, this would never be an issue. Not so, my friends! Anyway, no one seemed to have a great solution. Most agreed that soapy water worked just “ok”. Some suggested spray oil, nail polish, hot water, hairdryer, etc. A lot just tackled the problem with a knife and lots of scraping. Yikes.

I tried one shoe with soapy water. That was a bust. Then I used spray oil and regular olive oil. Bust. Then I tried nail polish remover, similar to my if your husband puts your keys in a pile of super glue post. 5 paper towels later, the nail polish remover worked and there was no sticky residue. So the next shoe I went straight to the nail polish remover. Bust. Tried soapy water on top of that and it seemed to work, several paper towels later. I think there is something about the combination of something slimy, like soap or oil plus the nail polish remover. The slimy helps the nail polish remover slide the sticky residue off the shoe, otherwise you just spread it around the bottom.

If anyone else has a good method, I’d love to hear about it. I just wish that they wouldn’t put these stickers on the bottom of expensive shoes, just because they’re on sale. Am I alone?

Don’t get me wrong.  I’d rather deal with the sticker on the bottom than pay $440 for the same shoes.  I just think there has to be a better way.

Tagged as: Department Stores, Designer Shoes, Lanvin, Nail Polish, Rants, Shoes, Shopping