Shoe prices

[Who me?]

Originally Posted by DWFII

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So no, I don't believe that price competition will create pressure to offer a better product...I doubt there is any historical precedence for such a thing...to the contrary I think it will only force the high end outfits to re-evaluate their process to see if more efficiency, more compromise, more profits can be squeezed out.

That's how they got to where they are now; that's how so many of the low end guys went from historically high end, even bespoke, makers to cardboard insoles.

I find this thread fascinating.




I doubt there would be any shoes sold here that are SF approved. maybe Florsheim would be about the top end here.
Every store selling shoes had huge discounts up to the 30th of june (end of the financial year) and a few are still selling to clear.
One of the major supermarkets had mens "dress" shoes for $9...I do not think the market for high end (low end SF) is all that great so manufacturers will cut whatever corners they can and I suspect that applies to almost any that makes for profit.

I have been looking closely at just about every shoe in town and it seems that there are a LOT of shoes that state they have leather insoles. Would it be "legal" to use the words "leather insole" if leatherboard was used?


Looking for shoes now, It has been an eye opener to see what they all use.....leather upper/leather insole/rubber sole matches the higher priced ones here (still NOTHING like SF approved but they seem fine to me though not something I would buy) and below that lots of combinations but most with synthetic soles many with synthetic uppers and at the bottom all synthetic (and a couple of odd ones with synthetic uppers but leather insoles).

They do seem to be all over the place with some leather upper/leather insole shoes being a third the price of synthetic only shoes. Prices here go to about $150 Australian.
I guess it is EBAY for me for AE (about the maximum I can justify) for my dress shoes and all synthetic cheapies for when they are likely to be destroyed easily....mind you some of those all synthetic cheapies are quite comfortable and last as long as some (higher) priced rubbish.

 

[uniqueswag]

I do not have mines yet, but I hear they are worth the cost.