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.
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.
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.
I replaced the soles 4 times before the uppers were trash (because they were leather)
Yes, plastic typically lasts longer than leather. That is the primary selling point of plastic.
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.
Every few months I would polish them. That wasn't the problem. They need to rest. If they get wet and you keep using them (because you use them every day and only have 1 pair of shoes), they will not last