From my point of view athletic shoes aren’t really a thing that can be effectively repaired because even the nice ones use plastics that aren’t easy to work with after they’ve been worn. I can usually do something but its sentiment that keeps them going not quality. But really the lesson I try to teach people is to not give a fuck about the name on the shoe. It vastly more important to know how a shoe is supposed to fit on your foot and that it feels comfortable long term.
Edit: I will add a few names to avoid pretty much entirely though. Post-1988 Cole Haan (owned by Nike), Louis Vuitton and Ecco
To elaborate on the “go for the fit, not the name”, there’s a common belief that shoes need some time to break in before they feel comfortable. This is only true if you get shoes that don’t really fit your foot. There’s more to feet variations than just the length. I learned that the first time I got lucky and one of the few shoes I was trying on in my mad dash to get shoes and go do something else asap fit my foot properly. It immediately made me realize that I need patience when getting shoes and to never buy a shoe that doesn’t feel great right away.
If you’re going for a designer shoe, I bet the odds of it perfectly fitting your foot are low, unless maybe you have the same foot type as Michael Jordan or whichever athlete’s name they are putting on the shoe, assuming that athlete’s foot was even part of the design at all. For all we know, they rip those shoes off as soon as the cameras aren’t watching because it was purely a marketing thing.
Why Ecco? I’ve been wearing the same pair of sneakers by them for a decade now and they’re still holding up well. Have they gotten worse in recent times?
The ones I see coming into the shop are usually about a year or two old and the soles are turning into a sticky powder-like consistency. That in and of itself isnt the problem but because the uppers are attached to the insole by a thin very exposed thread that has been melted into the now crumbling sole I can’t remove enough of the old material to get any suitable adhesives to stick without cutting that structurally fundamental stitch.
The sneakers might hold up better but must just not hold up well enough for folks to bring them to me
Good to know. I have a pair I bought early this year and have been wearing them almost daily. If they come apart in that time frame, that’s gonna suck, because they weren’t cheap.
The quality of the man-made materials has diminished. People have complained that the plastics literally flake off and crack after about 6 months of wear and tear. The stitching is pretty weak, too.
The chemicals that went into making plastics and related polymeric materials last longer and be more flexible were found to be horrible for people and the environment. Basically a long list of cancer causing forever chems.
From my point of view athletic shoes aren’t really a thing that can be effectively repaired because even the nice ones use plastics that aren’t easy to work with after they’ve been worn. I can usually do something but its sentiment that keeps them going not quality. But really the lesson I try to teach people is to not give a fuck about the name on the shoe. It vastly more important to know how a shoe is supposed to fit on your foot and that it feels comfortable long term.
Edit: I will add a few names to avoid pretty much entirely though. Post-1988 Cole Haan (owned by Nike), Louis Vuitton and Ecco
To elaborate on the “go for the fit, not the name”, there’s a common belief that shoes need some time to break in before they feel comfortable. This is only true if you get shoes that don’t really fit your foot. There’s more to feet variations than just the length. I learned that the first time I got lucky and one of the few shoes I was trying on in my mad dash to get shoes and go do something else asap fit my foot properly. It immediately made me realize that I need patience when getting shoes and to never buy a shoe that doesn’t feel great right away.
If you’re going for a designer shoe, I bet the odds of it perfectly fitting your foot are low, unless maybe you have the same foot type as Michael Jordan or whichever athlete’s name they are putting on the shoe, assuming that athlete’s foot was even part of the design at all. For all we know, they rip those shoes off as soon as the cameras aren’t watching because it was purely a marketing thing.
Why Ecco? I’ve been wearing the same pair of sneakers by them for a decade now and they’re still holding up well. Have they gotten worse in recent times?
The ones I see coming into the shop are usually about a year or two old and the soles are turning into a sticky powder-like consistency. That in and of itself isnt the problem but because the uppers are attached to the insole by a thin very exposed thread that has been melted into the now crumbling sole I can’t remove enough of the old material to get any suitable adhesives to stick without cutting that structurally fundamental stitch.
The sneakers might hold up better but must just not hold up well enough for folks to bring them to me
Good to know. I have a pair I bought early this year and have been wearing them almost daily. If they come apart in that time frame, that’s gonna suck, because they weren’t cheap.
The quality of the man-made materials has diminished. People have complained that the plastics literally flake off and crack after about 6 months of wear and tear. The stitching is pretty weak, too.
Source: Sneakerhead friend.
The chemicals that went into making plastics and related polymeric materials last longer and be more flexible were found to be horrible for people and the environment. Basically a long list of cancer causing forever chems.
Disappointing to hear. They’ve been my go-to for years. I have a pair I bought this year and wear almost daily.