Context: I noticed I have some clothes from 10 years ago that are still good to wear, and some newer things I have barely worn yet. I wondered if I reached a point where all the clothes I own would be enough to last for the rest of my life. There is a dresser and a closet worth of things.
For the sake of this question, let’s say you can’t buy, borrow, steal, receive as a gift, find, or make anything new to wear. All you get is what you have now. Is it enough?
My dad let me into a little secret (which I found out to be fairly common knowledge) about shoes.
Buy Italian, they last longer and the handmade ones can easily be repaired.
My dress shoes have lasted for over 16 years now, and I can’t remember how long I’ve had my Scarpa boots for, I’ve got 3 pairs, and they’re nowhere near wearing out.
How about sneakers?
https://www.goral-shoes.co.uk/products/the-smugs-horween-natural-pre-order
Certainly out of my price range, lol. To make a long story short, though, sneakers (and all other athletic foam-based shoes) are inherently not durable, nor designed to be. To get long life out of footwear, you really need to wear more traditionally constructed (i.e., no foam) shoes or boots for 95% of the time, and save athletic footwear for when it’s needed. You don’t even really need foamy shoes for all athletics.
I’m lucky if I can get 700 km out of a standard pair of running shoes, but foamless (or foam-lite) “barefoot” shoes like xeroshoes have a 5000 mile warranty.
Yeah - I don’t think a durable sneaker exists. I live in the city and do a lot of walking. I can get about 18 months from a better pair of running shoes. I really hate finding a pair I really like then a year or two later they no longer make anything like that shoe and the replacement is either lower quality or doesn’t fit as well.
Will definitely give Xeroshoes a close look. That turns out to be something like 50 miles a week over two years which is almost double what I would walk. Thanks!