Buy it for Life

AFAIK, it is the leather ageing faster, linked to bacteria growth due to humidity. Cycling between 2, ideally 3 pairs, allows the shoe to dry and kill the bacteria in between.

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.

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.

Yeah, unfortunately options are a little limited as far as what most people would want as an everyday shoe. Most of the recraftable shoes out there are either boots or what most people would probably consider to be sort of a dress shoe.

There's still some options out there, Allen Edmonds has some recraftable sneaker-type shoes, though they may not be everyone's cup of tea (they're certainly not mine)

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.

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.

seems like that is only do able for heavy duty shoes

Huh? Goodyear welting is just a construction method. You can apply it to any shoe style like loafers or chukkas. See e.g. Crockett & Jones "Harvard" or the less expensive https://berwickshoes.com/gb/9628-k5-superbuck-snuff.html

The only problem with Goodyear welted shoes it's that the sole is very stiff. You can try Blake stitched instead.

But yeah in general you'll need to change the shoe style you wear to more traditional. Goral has some more casual blake stitched styles too: https://www.goral-shoes.co.uk/collections/mens

What do you mean by “heavy duty”? Thursday Boot Company has resoleable boots that are decidedly not work boots.

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

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

I don't know this brand, but good quality, Goodyear welt leather boots can cost hundreds of dollars. This service, might have cost a couple hundred and still be worth it.

Don't go judging a man's actions before walking a mile in his shoes! 😜

Cheaper for who?

Redwing customer service sucks, their warranty is bullshit, and their Goodyear welt falls apart in just over a year. I will never purchase another pair of redwing boots and I am far from alone.

Where would you recommend buying old army surplus boots?

Pretty much the whole point of a call center job is to be able to verbally communicate with your callers clearly and effectively.

And, like it or not, heavy accents can really get in the way of that, and I think that's an accessibility issue. It makes it difficult for people to access services they need to use.

Not everyone has great hearing, some people have cognitive issues, some people are just not used to hearing different accents. I've had to make calls to customer service for my mom because she just could not understand the reps she was getting to be able to resolve the issues she was having.

Most accents don't cause an issue for most people, but for some accents with some people they really do, and it's incredibly frustrating to be in the position where you can't understand the person who's supposed to be helping you to fix your issue because companies don't want to spend the money to hire customer service reps who can speak clearly for positions where that's really the only qualification that's needed.

And it's not just foreign accents, I honestly have more trouble with certain American accents, I've gotten a few people that I'd swear were trying to do a Boomhauer impression.

Yes, plastic typically lasts longer than leather. That is the primary selling point of plastic.

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.

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.

You're not taking care of your boots then, leather is skin and needs care. I have a pair of boots in my closet that lasted ten years, until I made a mistake and ruined them. I'm not ready to let them go yet.