Pirate Boot Cover

My experience with these pirate boot covers started out poorly, since my initial order was apparently lost in the mail and were never delivered. Amazon was great as far as refunding my money. I re-ordered them (of course the price had risen by then) and they arrived on schedule this time. The vinyl material these are made out of is very heavy-duty and does a good job of resembling black leather. As others have stated, there are two elastic straps on the bottom that are supposedly to keep the bottom down over your shoe. These straps are way too small to fit over my shoe (which is only size 8 1/2). The brass decorative buttons on the outside of each boot cover are only attached with two strands of weak thread. I can see why people say these break off easily. With a bit of sewing and corrective engineering, I was able to correct these shortcomings and end up with a great looking pair of pirate boots. I've attached photos of my modifications. For reference, these pirate boot covers measure 22 inches from top to bottom, are 9 inches wide at the top and about 6 1/2 inches wide at the bottom. First of all, I reinforced all the brass buttons by sewing them securely on with heavy duty black thread. These babies are on to stay now. Next, I cut off the elastic band that was toward the front of the shoe. This was unneeded and I used the resultant piece of elastic to lengthen the rear elastic band (which is positioned to go right in front of the heel). For the rear elastic band, I cut through the band where it attaches to the outside side of the boot cover and then lengthened the band by sewing on the extra piece obtained above. I overlapped the two pieces by about 1/2 inch and just sewed around the overlap segment with the heavy duty black thread giving a strong joint. Since the original stitching on the attachment of the rear band to the inside side of the boot cover did not look too sturdy, I reinforced this attachment point using heavy duty black thread. I next installed a metal snap fastener button on the outside end of the rear strap and the receiving snap stud on the outside of the lower boot cover (see photos). These are very easy to install if you buy a basic snap fastener kit Lord & Hodge 1100 Snap Fastener Kit. To put on your pirate boot covers, first slide the covers up over you legs then put on and tie your black dress shoes (or any black shoes that have heels on them - you need the heels to get the full pirate effect). Now pull the boot covers down over the top of your shoes, bring the elastic strap around the bottom of your shoe just in front of the heel, and snap it into place on the opposite side. The top of the boot covers are normally folded over. Unfold them and tie a shoelace around each boot cover just below your knee. Make this as snug as is comfortable. This will hold the top of the boot cover up above your calf. Now fold the top of the boot cover back down so that it hides the shoelace and gives that special pirate look. You are now ready to say Arrrrgh!

I bought these to wear with my Gaston costume to Disneyland. They were great. I took the advice of another reviewer and put them on my boots before I put my boots on and they didn't tear at all. I wear a womens size 9 (mens 7) and they were tight around the foot. I would imagine they would be very tight on a large footed man. They were also very big around the knee area, I had to use a few safety pins to keep them up. Other than that I loved them, they made the costume look super authentic and I wore them for about 9 hours straight with no problems.

They look great, but I had to fix and modify them. All the the straps (two on each cover) broke the first time I tired to put them on. That's because the elastic bands designed to fit between the sole and the floor just in front of the heel do not stretch enough to get over a size 12 shoe. 12 is not an uncommon size so I expected they would not be a problem. These should either be looser elastic or have have velcro/hook and loop to secure them.Once on, the covers do not stay up. After walking 5m, both had slipped all the way down. The laces are not functional, so I would up tying black string to in the crease of the flipped-over part at the top to keep them secured over the widest part of my calves.

I've got some pretty tall legs with a sizable calf and these still are very loose and will fall down a lot. Otherwise they did the job perfectly with a pair of black dress shoes.I will say they need to come with some instructions. There are two straps on the bottom of these toppers. As another reviewer helped me understand, you really need to put these over your shoes first so that the further elastic strap goes around the bottom of the shoes you're going to wear. You can ignore the other strap. After the topper is around the shoe, then you put your foot in and tie your shoes.As for the falling down issue, the way I fixed this was to pull the cuff up and use some extra shoelaces that I had (any string would work) and wrapped them around the toppers under the cuff while they were on my leg and tied them off. Because the cuff is between my calf and my knee, I didn't need to tie them very tight, just enough to make it tight above my calf and folded the cuff over the string.

These are really nice covers... They give the appearance of being real leather boots with the right shoes. I used a pair of dark brown leather shoes and the boot tops blended in perfectly. My only issue is that these covers sagged down my legs over time and I had to keep pulling them up. But using a rubber band under the cuff was an adequate fix. Other than that, though, I have no complaints with the quality or style of this item. *AMMENDMENT* After reading some other reviews about the strap breaking (I'm assuming they are referring to the toe strap) I've decided to make a small addition to my review. I think that the toes trap is designed for a female shoe and is supposed to break on a wider (male) shoe. I actually like the look after the toe strap breaks, and it doesn't affect the way the covering fits on my shoe at all. I simply cut off the broken strap.

I don't know how you are supposed to get these on with shoes. We bought these for my husband as part of a Halloween costume. He has size 9.5-10 feet that are a little on the wide side. There is not enough stretch to the elastic on the bottom that you can put a pair of shoes on and have the elastic go over it. The elastic on both pairs broke and also the buttons fell off within minutes of putting them on. I would not repurchase this item.