Based on the excerpt from this Discworld book, what other items do you use regularly that would fit in this theory? (Boots and shoes are fair game!)
Text transcript for people who want it:
[The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.
Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.
But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that’d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years’ time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.
This was Captain Samuel Vimes ‘Boots’ theory of socioeconomic unfairness.]
Bonus: suggest ways you can repair/restore your item/other people’s items.
Here’s my example: Nice Hoka shoes are typically 100$+, but Sketcher’s Work Sneakers are ~40$. The Hokas would last a lot longer and be more ergonomic, but that price is way out of my reach. The Sketchers get disintegrated by a year of use.
What I do is add arch supports and gel shoe inserts (9$ iirc) into the Sketchers, and replace those when they wear. It adds about two years of life to the shoes! :)
How long do the hoka’s last? I usually get $20 shoes that last a year before the soles wear though, so they’d need to last at least five years to break even. How long have you found them to last?
Unfortunately, I can’t afford the price just to try Hokas. They were recommended by another nursing student, and seem to be a gold standard shoe for a lot of healthcare workers.
From what I’ve heard, though, it “depends on your usage”.
What do you do to make your 20$ shoes last as long as you can? And tips and tricks?
When mine were new, I waterproofed them. Regular maintenance, cleaning and re-treating them with a silicone spray extends their life substantially. I also have repaired and re-glued mine when repairs were still at a small stage, to extend their life. I have re-sewn tops to the soles, too. I wear my junker shoes when conditions are wet, saving the good shoes from water damage. YouTube teaches about anything, now, including basic shoe repair.
I’m guessing it’s probably just that I walk less than other people. Not a great solution. But I also have hard orthopedic insoles, maybe that distributes the weight more evenly? And I hadn’t had to replace them for like the 10 years I’ve had them. I also wear my shoes even when the seams are ripped or the sole is a third of the way unglued, I usually only replace when my toes are able to touch the ground. From the other recommendations, I’ll see if I can save up for the nice shoes though, it might be worth it.
Funnily enough as I was just writing my other comment there was a knock at the door…my new Skechers have arrived lol! Last ones, as you predicted, started to disintegrate. Although the ones previous to those lasted for years, so I’d been kind of hoping I just got a bad pair. Your comment bodes, and now I’m off to look for those inserts so thanks for the tip.
If you work on your feet/have to stand on concrete/tile, definitely look at “Heel That Pain” brand heel seats. Full price is way too much (44$ for two boxes), so look for sales.
There’s a gel one and a more firm one. The gel one helped with sciatic pain, and still works ~3 pairs of shoes later.
(I’ve also layered the heel seats over top of the typical Dr. Scholl’s work gel inserts. Works great for me but my partner hates the feel. YMMV.)