I can't be entirely sure that the problem is the shoes and not the house, but I have never had a problem with my old shoes in the same house.  Furthermore, the employee who cleaned the approach was befuddled by the fact that she owns the same shoes and hasn't had any problems of this nature.

There was a visible layer of black gummy substance in the slide area, which was not there when I started bowling, and which was removed (at least from visibility) with a thorough cleaning.  I was the only person on my lane, so I have to assume the substance came from the shoes.

As a sidenote, when I was practicing a guy from my league was there and said he had had the same problem with his ABS shoes, and that he just gave up and went back to his old pair.  I however, do not want to give up until I find some sort of solution, because I still believe these shoes can be the great product everyone says they are.

The conclusion I draw from all of this is that the pressure my natural approach puts on the heel when I slide definitely creates quite a bit of friction, and therefore may be scuffing small amounts of the heel off and spreading it across the rest of the heel.  This, combined with any possible dirt or dust on the approach would cause it to turn black and dirty, and since I plant in the same place on every throw, it would deposit small amounts at a time on the approach.  Then the real problem becomes the transfer of this stuff from approach to heel and back to the approach every time I throw a ball.  My ruined #4 sole is evidence of this, considering it turned black in under 7 games of play!  It was just wiping up all the crap on the approach until it couldn't wipe up any more and started sticking.

Given that my natural style slides more on the heel than on the sole (apparently), what are my options?  I have thought about the adjust a heel tool; it actually looks cool!  In fact, the adjustable part of the heel is exactly where the black stuff is on my heels.  However, if anyone has any suggestions on how to specifically clean my existing heels, I would sure appreciate it!

I also get a black buildup on the heels of my abs' saw, so you are not alone. It is also on my flat light grey heel that I get a buildup. I find that actually, the buildup I get makes me slide too far than I like, because it is dry most of the time, not sticky.

The other problem I have had is that after only 6 months, all my soles are already worn to the point where I can't use them without sliding way too much, and my radial heel is also already worn down. It is extremely frustrating paying this much for shoes and having this happen, as I don't like replacing soles every 3 months and washing heels after every set.
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stanski

Edited on 2/23/2005 7:31 PM

A-Game, thanks for the suggestion.  Here's an update; I used the #3 sole with the radial heel tonight for league and didn't have any problems other than the natural adjustment to different-feeling shoes.  After about 5 frames I was in a comfort zone.

I did start to get a little buildup on the heels again tonight, but I don't think 3 games is enough to cause me the problems I had in practice, which started around the 4th game, and I only was bowling on 1 lane, not a pair.  I did notice the other guys sticking a little more than usual though, so I wonder if there was still a small amount of buildup on the approaches.  However, no one complained about it so chalk it up to coincidence. I think if I just clean my heels regularly after each 3 game session, everything should be ok, especially if I am bowling on a pair and not just one lane.

Also, we needed to split 4 points tonight (3 games, 1 total pins) to win the quarter, and we got skunked by 100+ pins in the first game.  It was looking like another choke, but we came back to win the next 2 games by under 20 pins each to take the quarter!  Me= 628.  Nothing special, but I am proud of it because one of the lanes had been destroyed by open play earlier in the day, and although we were bowling on fresh oil, the left lane had horrible carry down compared to flying backends on the right lane.  I had to throw 2 different balls on two different lines all night!  U Solid on left lane with a more straight line, U Pearl on the right lane with a little swing.  Crazy difference in the two lanes, but we pulled it off!  How did your night turn out, Mike?