We bus chicks tend to (quite literally) walk our behinds off. While all this walking might be good for our bodies, it’s not so good for our footwear. After all, there are only so many times a girl can replace the heels on her favorite pair of boots.

Recently, I mentioned this problem to my friend Arif, a fellow bus rider who also happens to have one of the most amazing collections of shoes I have ever seen. Arif walks almost as much as I do, but his shoes always look like he just took them out of the box. His secret? Well, there’s the fact that he has enough pairs to limit repeating (a tactic this bus chick envies but does not condone). And then there’s the secret that his shoe-loving daddy passed down: taps. Arif puts rubber taps on all his shoes. They prevent the heel from wearing down, are fairly easy to replace, and because they’re rubber, have the added benefit of muffling sound.

I can’t wait to try some on those boots.