Survey: Do You Fix Your Shoes?

by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 10.23.08
Interact (surveys)

obama-shoes.jpg
treehugger survey graphic image

A certain frugal presidential candidate wears his shoes until there are holes in the bottoms and then has them resoled. This surprised me, I did not think anyone did this anymore. Nor did I think that someone on a campaign trail would wear leather soles when they could get more shock absorbent alternatives. Image by Callie Shell in Time

Follow @TreeHugger on Twitter & get our headlines with @TH_rss!

Comments (9)

Shouldn't everyone choose option A in almost every purchase?

jump to top Emily says:

Put it simply, sports shoes, I will not buy a pair of shoes unless I can see that it can be repaired. I got sick and tired of chucking away fundamentally good shoes because the soles had gone through and no one could repair them.

Not all repairs are equal, once you find a good cobbler stick to them like glue and shower them with work.

jump to top gsdali says:

me, i buy army boots & get them resoled every couple years. they last a really long time & are very comfortable (once theyre broken in) plus they can be bought for cheap at surplus shops.

jump to top dispophoto says:

When you break in a leather shoe the comfort is so much better then a springy sweatshop and glue shoe.

jump to top Galls says:

I would argue that there is little more comfortable than a proper pair of leather soled dress shoes or boots. I own Ecco's, Cole Haan's with the Nike Air pack and some great leather soled shoes/boots in and amongst many pairs of sneakers. If choosing on comfort alone give me my leather boots anyday.

jump to top Ross says:

I don't repair my shoes, because for whatever reason, even good sneakers I buy tend to break in many places at once; repairing would cost more than buying new.

I have repaired my Birkenstocks, though.

jump to top Anthony [TypeKey Profile Page] says:

Of course I fix my shoes! I still call the shoe repair guy a 'cobbler' too. It's not just a word out of a kid's nursery rhyme.

What I don't understand is why everyone doesn't buy repairable shoes. Sneakers I understand. But for my dress shoes, I never buy crepe soles that don't last.

jump to top mapgirl says:

I'm currently going through the veggie v's leather dilemma and so far haven't found any solutions. Even though I'm not into girly heely shoes, fashion is also a strong element. so far the only descent option is Worn Again otherwise I can't find anything nice and my 3 pairs of runners are getting beyond repair. Sipmy don't have a nice selection here in Europe and I'm refusing to ship in the US.

jump to top judesherry says:

I have a diff take to this. I use not genuine leather but synthetic one. The shoes may not last that long, say just one year, but I am not killing any animal for my soles. The rubber soles once broken or flattened, can resole them. But you have to really hunt for a cobbler who will do that for you. Thats because, these soles are molded and not custom ones. Also go through a recycle procedure, which leather may not.

jump to top Sanket Pingale India says:

Post a comment

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)