Ok, don’t panic. Behind the zipper is a thin strip of leather intended to prevent the zipper from rubbing against and irritating your skin, which can sometimes gets caught in the zipper. That is very frustrating, especially when you are still in the boot!
1. Put your finger between the caught leather and the zipper, then try to zip up and over your finger. This will move the zipper and free the caught leather. If you can’t move the zipper, try threading a shoelace through the eye of the zipper tab, and stand up and pull the shoelace slowly, while pulling the zipper up with it over your finger.
2. Ok, that didn’t work? Next try to pop open the zipper carriage with a pair of needle-nose pliers. At the bottom of the zipper carriage, squeeze with the needle-nose pliers, and with enough pressure you can pop open the carriage into two pieces. Hopefully, you are free.
3. Ok, all of that didn’t work? At this point you should just cut that piece of leather out of the zipper (just a little, you want to save the boots!), and free yourself. Make sure you cut the leather behind the zipper, not the outside of the boots!
After all this, you might want to take the boots to a cobbler to fix, or replace the zipper or carriage. If everything is fine, and it’s only that annoying leather that keeps getting caught, you can probably cut that leather strip out, as its only function is to prevent the zipper from rubbing against your leg. Carefully cut about a centimeter from the stitching so that the leather doesn’t interfere with the zipper anymore.
When in doubt, connect with one of our Fluevogologists through our Live Chat (just click the box on the bottom right-hand corner of your screen) or call any store and they will walk you through it.
