How wore down do you let your shoes get before buying new ones? I’m always repurposing my worn-out walking shoes (yard work and grass cutting) until they’re completely smooth soled or hurting my feet.
These two physical therapist, Bob and Brad have some advice on what to do with your old shoes before throwing them out. Watch
These guys have made a lot of good videos on stretches, exercises, and pain around various parts of the body that are worth checking out.
“How wore down do you let your shoes get before buying new ones? I’m always repurposing my worn-out walking shoes (yard work and grass cutting) until they’re completely smooth soled or hurting my feet.”
I do exactly the same.
well look at that, my shoes wear “normal” according to these dicks. huh.
I do a lot of walking, 5-6 miles a day, up to 12-15 miles in the summer. The most comfortable shoes for walking I’ve found is Sketchers Sport Vigor with memory foam. They feel weird at first as your toes squish into the memory foam, but the comfort and fit is spot on. They are about $50-$60 a pair and I get about a year out of them walking and another year for yard work. I used to wear Merrell for $120/pair and they were trashed in 2-3 months. Just a tip if you’re looking for a good reasonably priced walking shoe that actually holds up.
My favorite kind of daily shoe goes through a progression.
$200.00 SAS shoes of quality, endurance, and looks, but comfort and arch support are why I prefer them. Hard to find triple-wides, but SAS has them.
New: Semi dress, but not suit worthy. That’s another level. Perfectly fine to wear new ones to church while dressing casually, but nice.
Scuffed: Daily work shoe. I treat them rough because I have a rough job, so it isn’t long before they are not “nice looking” shoes any more. Cleaning helps, but the damage shows enough that 3 months of work-wear makes them no good for any nice social gathering. They last a full year at this stage. They are quality shoes. But they are tossed when I have worn them enough for the leather to separate from the sole – about 1 1/2 to 2 years, depending on how many hours they have been on my feet.
Tennis shoes and sandals don’t even come close to the longevity I get from them. Can’t wear the old versions with shorts, but jeans work well with almost worn out SAS shoes.
When they develop a tear, at about 12 months – they are work-around-the-property shoes only, and it’s time to use my somewhat used “nice” pair as a work shoe and buy another pair for the top of the progression.
My back and feet will tell me it’s time to replace even though they still look OK. Best luck with New Balance for walking and Redback boots for work. Redbacks are a little pricey but they last a long time.
I’ve worn mostly New Balance 608 V5 walking shoes (about $40 on sale – I bought 5 pairs at that price) the last several years since I have hardly any social occasions to dress for. After a year or 1.5 years or so, the soles started separating from the upper on the first pair I bought at that price (and I’ve had the same problem with this type of shoe in the past). These have become my “yard shoes” that I have kept going for another year or so with Shoe Goo (a glue for shoes that you can buy at Walmart for about $6 for a tube large enough to repair several pairs of shoes). I generously apply the shoe goo at the separated places to rejoin them and tape the top to the sole with packing tape for 24 hours or so. I’ve been wearing these shoes several hours a day for close to 3 years now. The bottoms are getting worn pretty smooth in places, but they still work for my purposes. Still have 4 brand new pairs for once I get all the good out of these.
I’ve had my workboots resoled four times.
Due for a fifth but we have no more cobblers locally.
Apparently footwear has become a throwaway item but I hate breaking in new boots.
These guys are pretty good. I’ve watched several of their videos. I tell patients 6 months of regular use is the lifespan. SAS shoes are diabetic footwear and built to last 1.5 years because that’s how often Medicare pays for shoes. A lot of mechanics go in to walking and your problem can be the cause or result of something else. We still have great Orthopedic medical care in this country- they haven’t Cubanized it yet.
I like these guys.
Now I need to go look at my shoes!
Grass stains are a clear indication where a particular pair of shoes sit in the pecking order.
These 2 guys are obviously either from Minnesota or N. Dakota because of the way they talk. I’ve found that Skechers work the best for my feet lately, I have a pair of Red Wing boots that will probably last forever and there is no way in hell I can wear Converse Chuck Taylor’s anymore because they have no arch support and they kill my feet. And I think that I have one pair of black dress shoes that I wear very rarely anymore. And there is no way ever I will wear Birkenstocks, my feet are ugly to begin with and I would look silly wearing them with socks. My wife and my daughter love their friggin Birkenstocks. After my wife died my kids tossed her Birkenstocks into the Pacific Ocean at Westport, Wash. along with her ashes. I had a pair of Earth shoes with negative heels once back in the mid 70’s that made me look like I was striding like Mr. Natural but my wife me get rid of them and she was right. And I never ever fell for the fad of wearing high heel pimp shoes back in the 70’s like so many other disco suckers did.
Interesting can’t wait to go out to the garage and check out my old work shoes.
I suffered from crippling Plantar Fasciitis for several years, until I traveled to Mississauga, Ontario to get treatment with ESW Therapy that was unavailable in the States. It cured my problem after three treatments. After that, I started wearing Keene walking shoes and my feet never hurt again. When they dropped one of the styles that I liked, I bought four of them and I’m on my third pair. I keep the old ones for work, and the new ones for daily wear. If anyone reading this is suffering from Plantar Fasciitis, the only treatment that cures it is ESWT, which is now available in this country.
DH and I are walkers, we hit the pavement or trails everyday 5-6 miles a day. Since wearing a Fit Bit, I have logged 16,907,299 steps. My comfortable best walking/hiking shoes are Saucony’s, when they get worn down but still have some treads, but holes in the tops, I use E6000 glue. Best stuff for everything that needs glued. I can’t depart with shoes that still feel good and are close to dead. Those are used for gardening.
There is nothing left of them when i get through with them. Being a father of five i do not own work shoes. Instead once they are not perty enough for normal public display the old shoe are forevermore our “play” shoes. I have custom insoles that protect my feet a bit, so they are used until socks are busting out the sides or bottom. As states about, father of five. Never could afford to have to many extra shoes 😉
Ask a farmer about shoes.
Merrell’s aren’t the hikers they once were. My wife’s pair started de-laminating the sole from upper after maybe a dozen hikes.
Wearing Propet now, and I liked the first pair I bought many years ago so much I bought 2 more, and retired the old ones to yard work.
Rugged & comfortable.
Ariat work boots (china, dammit). I wear them until the welder boogers start to burn holes thru my new socks.
Best boots I’ve found are Justin. Made in USA, (at (at least they used to be), and fit right out of the box. For some reason, big box stores and some on-line retailers only stock size 13 and larger in “extra wide”; not good for my long narrow clod-hoppers.
The best training, running, all round tenni runner on the market right now are HOKA’s. My last pair of New Balance and Brooks broke down really fast. I do spend most my week on cement. Every UPS delivery guy I know wears HOKAs.
I haven’t owned any athletic shoes since about 1992, but as far as boots and shoes for suits, and work, I install rubber taps on the heels… that keeps re-soling down to every decade, or so.
Most of the time work boots around here are rubber boots. Honeywell Servus have been excellent — US made, and when they are worn out they go in the trash.
Steel toe justin rough outs. I dye and polish them myself. Goin’ on 13 years. Prolly needs a resole an the steel is pokin’ out of one boot.
Good for daily grind, funerals, work meetings….I’d golf in them if I could.