Income Level - Why shoe prices don't matter that much

[TradThrifter]

If you have a decent rotation, lower end shoes can last for many years. That doesn't mean id want to wear low-end shoes for life even though I could. I say, buy nicer things as your income allows; however, you don't have to buy luxury to be well put together either.

 

[Seamless]



If you have a decent rotation, lower end shoes can last for many years. That doesn't mean id want to wear low-end shoes for life even though I could. I say, buy nicer things as your income allows; however, you don't have to buy luxury to be well put together either.

I agree. I have a few AEs, Loake, J&M and sadly a Kenneth Cole in my rotation. Unless you know what to look for most would over look any of my more expensive shoes. They do fit and wear better so the comfort I found in Loake I'd pay for them all over again.

 

[Concordia]



No matter of how good quality calf leather a shoe is made, it will only last a certain time due to the material characteristics. You can do a lot of repairs and thus expand the life of a pair but at some time the upper leather will crack.

Austrian Shoemaker Ludwig Reiter speaks of 3000 "operating hours" until your shoe will have material fatigues.

That implies buying 2 pair per year in equilibrium. Or tanking up on a good rotation and then getting one good pair per year after that. [Someone better with math or with more appetite for Excel can work that part out.] Cordovans will last longer, of course. Ask the shoeshine guys at Brooks Brothers. They see lots of 20-year-old shells, not so many calf shoes.

That goes to my theory that if you want to move to bespoke shoes, count on something north of $3,000/year-- for a decent while. Year 1 is to take care of "needs," maybe a buttload of AEs or Aldens. Year 2, nibble on a few EGs or Vass or other expensive RTW to see where else your tastes might run. After that, it's either a single new pair of bespoke or a lot of resoling per year. By the time your first batch has completely worn out, you will have a good rotation of bespoke.

 

[clotheshorse69]

I wouldn't consider AE a luxury shoe. Alden, yes.

 

[indesertum]

This thread hurts my brain

 

[blitzmage]

If it's just utility you're after,a cheap H&M shoe can last for more than a year with proper maintenance (oiling) and sole repair.

Shoes aren't high tech items. You can make even cheap ones last for years with some resourcefulness.

 

[archibaldleach]

I've looked at the whole utility and cost / value ratio for nicer shoes before. In my experience, higher quality shoes cost less per year (assuming similar rates of wear) vs. lower quality shoes than cost alone would suggest. They also tend to look better than the cheaper variety.

Anything less than $100 isn't worth getting repaired / resoled as a decent resole / repair job costs around that and by the time you need a new sole (even for cheap shoes). A $400 pair of Allen Edmonds / Alden maybe can get resoled 5 times and will last 6 times longer than the crappy shoes. So 9x the cost over 6x the lifetime would be around 1.5x the cost per year / wear. Not nearly as much as the price premium suggests, but still more expensive.

I do agree that past the Allen Edmonds / Alden level of quality, the cost / wear ratio starts to increase at a faster rate. The $800 pair of shoes maybe gets resoled 7 times ($800 + $100 x7 = $1,500), so 15x the cost for 8x the lifespan of cheap shoes, so 1.875x the cost per wear of the $100 shoes (versus 8x for sticker price).

 

[chogall]

gotta be smoking some weird **** to believe cheap kohl shoes or from payless shoes only lasts 4 months and ae lasts forever...

 

[usctrojans31]



gotta be smoking some weird **** to believe cheap kohl shoes or from payless shoes only lasts 4 months and ae lasts forever...

Maybe OP is smoking the shoes themselves? Payless plastic has to be pretty toxic when ablaze.

 

[Romans116]

gotta be smoking some weird **** to believe cheap kohl shoes or from payless shoes only lasts 4 months and ae lasts forever...

Try some kohls shoes. Wear them every other day to work. They will be trash very fast. I.e. sole falls of, scuff that won't come off, etc.

Ae.....well....my argument wasn't really that they lasted forever. More or less trying to see if they were cheaper then a kohl's shoe in a few year window.

 

[dieworkwear]

The only way to settle this is to wear Allen Edmonds on one foot and Kohls on the other. Rotate between the two pairs each day, and see which ends up costing you less in the long run.

 

[Romans116]

The only way to settle this is to wear Allen Edmonds on one foot and Kohls on the other. Rotate between the two pairs each day, and see which ends up costing you less in the long run.

Genius

 

[blitzmage]

I wore a pair of $45 shoes for 2 years for around 3x a week with no repairs. I wore it through rain, sun and even flooded streets.

If there's anything I learned over the last decade, it's that price does not guarantee durability. Just as we cannot generalize that all high street designer $500 shoes are durable, we can't generalize that all department stores shoes are unreliable as well.

 

[Count de Monet]

I was told there would be no math.

 

[Romans116]

Hahah. Math is fun