No shoes are truly BIFL if you wear them regularly, but these come close
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I’ve tried them twice. They never broke in and got comfortable.
I find them pretty comfortable once broken on, but they don’t have long left after that
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I definitely have been considering resoleable shoes but really seems like that is only do able for heavy duty shoes which I really dont have much cause to wear.
Chacos (sturdy sandals) are able to be rebuilt Ship of Theseus style. A resole is half the price of a new pair, but you can swap out straps or hardware as desired. I need to send mine in.
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I can’t remember if I heard it here but I have heard (and feel, anecdotally) that cycling between wearing two different pairs of shoes leads them to lasting longer than if you wore one pair until they fell apart then a second pair until they fell apart.
I don’t know how that could possibly work unless giving shoes a “break” rather than wearing every day extends their life somehow.
My evidence: I have had a separate pair of running shoes and walking shoes for a few years now.
In addition to the leather stuff the other commenter mentioned, foam gets compressed during usage (especially running shoes with a lot of foam). It can take several days for the foam to recover. If you run in the same shoes every day, you aren’t getting the full benefit of the foam, and you are basically beating it while it’s already down.
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I definitely have been considering resoleable shoes but really seems like that is only do able for heavy duty shoes which I really dont have much cause to wear.
Solovair make boots in the UK which are basically Dr Martens but still hand made. They are fairly light boots which can be resold and come in various styles.
I’ve had 2 pairs for a few years now and they are wearing beautifully. I’ve not had to re-sole them yet but it should be easily doable.
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I’ve tried them twice. They never broke in and got comfortable.
Break-in was rough, took about a month of regular wear
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It may look like a beat-up old pair of hiking boots, but in fact it’s a pair of beat-up old hiking boots with new soles, lining, heel-counters, shanks, hardware, laces and one hell of a cleaning and reconditioning job.
Around 4 years ago I bought this pair of Danner Lights. They were worn fairly close to daily, and have some hard miles on them hiking and backpacking.
Sent them in to Danner for their recrafting service. 4-6 weeks and a couple days for shipping later I just got them back.
They’re just the tiniest bit snug because of the new lining, but otherwise these are unmistakably my boots that have broken in to fit my feet, but the soles still have treads on them.
Also, Danner customer service was great to deal with. When I shipped my boots out to them, I got the notification that they had been delivered, but after a day or two I hadn’t gotten the email from Danner to confirm they received it. I wasn’t exactly worried, I figured it would probably take them a couple days to open the box and get my boots checked in, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to give them a call anyway.
After a reasonable number of rings, my call was answered by an actual human.
And one with no heavy accent, who didn’t mumble into the phone, and had no attitude problem, and most astoundingly, actually worked for Danner at their office.
But so I asked if there was any way he could confirm that my boots had been delivered to the right place. He took my tracking info, looked it up, and was able to tell me that yes, they had them, because he knew the guy who signed for them.
And then he gave me a direct number to the recrafting department in case I needed to follow up with them any further (I didn’t feel any need for that, but after recently going through hell trying to get in touch with anyone at the local delivery hub for a company that was supposed to deliver some new appliances for me with no luck to figure out what the hell was going on with repeated delivery delays, I really appreciated that)
It’s kind of sad that I’m so used to automated menus, outsourced call centers, and customer service reps who clearly want to be doing anything else but helping me (not that I blame them, I don’t want to work either) that that’s all it takes to make a customer service experience feel great.
If I have any complaints at all about my experience, it’s that the white stitching around the soles was replaced with brown. I thought the white looked pretty sharp, but these are hiking boots they’re just going to get dirty anyway.
But anyway, I’m really happy with my experience, and I’m looking forward to hopefully another 4+ years with these boots.
A lot of old army surplus boots and shoes are Goodyear-welted or in the case of Italian mountain boots, have a Norwegian double stitch. They cost nothing when compared to dress boots, you can find NOS boots for 25 to 100€ and they last a very long time: you can hope for 4-5 resoles if you let them dry after every wear.
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It may look like a beat-up old pair of hiking boots, but in fact it’s a pair of beat-up old hiking boots with new soles, lining, heel-counters, shanks, hardware, laces and one hell of a cleaning and reconditioning job.
Around 4 years ago I bought this pair of Danner Lights. They were worn fairly close to daily, and have some hard miles on them hiking and backpacking.
Sent them in to Danner for their recrafting service. 4-6 weeks and a couple days for shipping later I just got them back.
They’re just the tiniest bit snug because of the new lining, but otherwise these are unmistakably my boots that have broken in to fit my feet, but the soles still have treads on them.
Also, Danner customer service was great to deal with. When I shipped my boots out to them, I got the notification that they had been delivered, but after a day or two I hadn’t gotten the email from Danner to confirm they received it. I wasn’t exactly worried, I figured it would probably take them a couple days to open the box and get my boots checked in, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to give them a call anyway.
After a reasonable number of rings, my call was answered by an actual human.
And one with no heavy accent, who didn’t mumble into the phone, and had no attitude problem, and most astoundingly, actually worked for Danner at their office.
But so I asked if there was any way he could confirm that my boots had been delivered to the right place. He took my tracking info, looked it up, and was able to tell me that yes, they had them, because he knew the guy who signed for them.
And then he gave me a direct number to the recrafting department in case I needed to follow up with them any further (I didn’t feel any need for that, but after recently going through hell trying to get in touch with anyone at the local delivery hub for a company that was supposed to deliver some new appliances for me with no luck to figure out what the hell was going on with repeated delivery delays, I really appreciated that)
It’s kind of sad that I’m so used to automated menus, outsourced call centers, and customer service reps who clearly want to be doing anything else but helping me (not that I blame them, I don’t want to work either) that that’s all it takes to make a customer service experience feel great.
If I have any complaints at all about my experience, it’s that the white stitching around the soles was replaced with brown. I thought the white looked pretty sharp, but these are hiking boots they’re just going to get dirty anyway.
But anyway, I’m really happy with my experience, and I’m looking forward to hopefully another 4+ years with these boots.
I learned the key is to avoid real leather. Even if you get $400 italian boots, that shit can’t take literally daily wear. It needs to rest.
The good faux leathers (using the material used in luxary yachts and car upholstery) lasts decades.
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I can’t remember if I heard it here but I have heard (and feel, anecdotally) that cycling between wearing two different pairs of shoes leads them to lasting longer than if you wore one pair until they fell apart then a second pair until they fell apart.
I don’t know how that could possibly work unless giving shoes a “break” rather than wearing every day extends their life somehow.
My evidence: I have had a separate pair of running shoes and walking shoes for a few years now.
That’s only a requirement for leather.
I live out of a backpack, so I can only own one pair of boots. I switched to synthetic, and my boots last decades instead of years.
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In addition to the leather stuff the other commenter mentioned, foam gets compressed during usage (especially running shoes with a lot of foam). It can take several days for the foam to recover. If you run in the same shoes every day, you aren’t getting the full benefit of the foam, and you are basically beating it while it’s already down.
Aaah that kind of makes intuitive sense
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A lot of old army surplus boots and shoes are Goodyear-welted or in the case of Italian mountain boots, have a Norwegian double stitch. They cost nothing when compared to dress boots, you can find NOS boots for 25 to 100€ and they last a very long time: you can hope for 4-5 resoles if you let them dry after every wear.
Where would you recommend buying old army surplus boots?
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I definitely have been considering resoleable shoes but really seems like that is only do able for heavy duty shoes which I really dont have much cause to wear.
What do you mean by “heavy duty”? Thursday Boot Company has resoleable boots that are decidedly not work boots.
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I don’t know… Maybe the one who spent money changing soles, lining, heel-counters, shanks, hardware, laces and paid for a cleaning and reconditioning job?
No, wait! Off course it’s cheaper for you! Wouldn’t be cheaper for you to buy new boots instead of writing stupid comments?
Based on the instance they chose to make an account on I wouldn’t be surprised if the point they’re trying to make is about waste. It might cost you more money but it’s “cheaper” in greenhouse gases and space in a landfill – something future generations are going to pay for.
Thankfully enshitification is encouraging repair even if replacement costs less because the replacement is cheap trash.
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but in fact it’s a pair of beat-up old hiking boots with new soles, lining, heel-counters, shanks, hardware, laces and one hell of a cleaning and reconditioning job.
Wouldn’t be cheaper to buy new boots?
New pair costs $400- something, and I consider them to have been worth every penny of that. Before I got these I normally got about 2 years out of a pair of cheaper, non-recraftable boots that usually cost me north of $200.
Recrafting cost $280 (and I suspect it could have been even cheaper if I went to a local cobbler,) so assuming I get at least 3 years out of them, still cheaper than buying a new pair of the cheaper boots, and definitely cheaper than buying a new pair of these3
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I learned the key is to avoid real leather. Even if you get $400 italian boots, that shit can’t take literally daily wear. It needs to rest.
The good faux leathers (using the material used in luxary yachts and car upholstery) lasts decades.
Yes, plastic typically lasts longer than leather. That is the primary selling point of plastic.
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Where would you recommend buying old army surplus boots?
Vinted or whatever the locals use the most in the EU. Outside of the EU I don’t know.
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I don’t know… Maybe the one who spent money changing soles, lining, heel-counters, shanks, hardware, laces and paid for a cleaning and reconditioning job?
No, wait! Off course it’s cheaper for you! Wouldn’t be cheaper for you to buy new boots instead of writing stupid comments?
So, you’ve fallen into a trap of your own making.
First, you didn’t wait for OP to respond. Had you waited, you’d see that 8 minutes ago they explained that it was in fact cheaper to have them repaired instead of replaced.
Second, you’re sitting here arguing for consumption vs repair and reuse. I can’t think of a more morally defunct argument than this, and I will gladly explain to you why.
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Based on the instance they chose to make an account on I wouldn’t be surprised if the point they’re trying to make is about waste. It might cost you more money but it’s “cheaper” in greenhouse gases and space in a landfill – something future generations are going to pay for.
Thankfully enshitification is encouraging repair even if replacement costs less because the replacement is cheap trash.
Nope it’s just cheaper all around, OP explained as much in their reply.
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I learned the key is to avoid real leather. Even if you get $400 italian boots, that shit can’t take literally daily wear. It needs to rest.
The good faux leathers (using the material used in luxary yachts and car upholstery) lasts decades.
Personally my problem has never really been the leather wearing out, it’s almost always the soles that give out on me long before that.
And failing that it’s usually other hardware like zippers
The only pair I really remember having an issue with the leather was a pair of steel toed work boots, and they developed some holes on the toes because I tended to use them to kick things around. Not too many materials hold up too well to being banged around between steel and a rock on whatever, so I don’t exactly blame the leather there.
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I definitely have been considering resoleable shoes but really seems like that is only do able for heavy duty shoes which I really dont have much cause to wear.
Thanks to the replies I have found many blake stitch and goodyear welt sneakers, now I just have to pick a pair and save up
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I learned the key is to avoid real leather. Even if you get $400 italian boots, that shit can’t take literally daily wear. It needs to rest.
The good faux leathers (using the material used in luxary yachts and car upholstery) lasts decades.
Technically all shoes should rest, but yeah if you’re in a humid climate leather handles it worse.
Good leather will last SO much longer if you take care of it. Had leather shoes I wore everyday until the sole wore through. It was initially super thick and I’d still be wearing them if it was a resolable shoe. Now that’s all I get and they’ll probably outlive me.
