In the immeasurably sensible years of long ago we had leather shoes with leather soles, the soles could be repaired and consequently they lasted a long time. When ' rubber soles' were first introduced there was some attempt to get the soles to match the life time of the uppers. Then along come 'fashion' shoes with man-made uppers. These simulated the appearance of leather but disintigrated within a year - but hey they're fashion shoes! Obviously there was no need to fit hard wearing soles so, cheap material was used, the sole was thinned and the heel ( the weakest point ) was made of 'cardboard' with a plastic veneer. What has happend is that this sole was transfered, for reasons of cost, to proper leather shoes. So that although the uppers may last five or more years the soles would be worn through in less than a year. The consumers have not cottoned on that this has happend and we are seeing the waste on a grand scale of an expensive natural product - leather!

Do you have any suggestions on how to fix this?

In the immeasurably sensible years of long ago we had leather shoes with leather soles, the soles could be repaired and consequently they lasted a long time. When ' rubber soles' were first introduced there was some attempt to get the soles to match the life time of the uppers. Then along come 'fashion' shoes with man-made uppers. These simulated the appearance of leather but disintigrated within a year - but hey they're fashion shoes! Obviously there was no need to fit hard wearing soles so, cheap material was used, the sole was thinned and the heel ( the weakest point ) was made of 'cardboard' with a plastic veneer. What has happend is that this sole was transfered, for reasons of cost, to proper leather shoes. So that although the uppers may last five or more years the soles would be worn through in less than a year. The consumers have not cottoned on that this has happend and we are seeing the waste on a grand scale of an expensive natural product - leather!

True.

I still have old school shoes which occasionally I get resoled (thin rubber under the sole)

Then every year a go through a couple of pairs that inevitably fail even if not the cheapest.

Even the expensive Clarks fall apart within weeks, since they moved their factory to a "cheaper" location (using cheaper material)

However I struck lucky a couple of years ago when I bought a pair of £120 boots from Russel and Bromley and despite the heavy use they're still ok.

Just luck!

Do you have any suggestions on how to fix this?

Erm! This thread, consisting of one post which, to me looks odd anyway, is three and a half years old. I doubt the OP will be coming back to respond which then begs the question, why post on such an old thread?

i'll add to the aged thread.

still have a pair of elderly loakes, leather resoled (traditionally) a few times and still going and looking good. but, now the traditional shoe repairer has gone (there only seems to be timpson round here), and some of loake shoes are now made in india (whether that affects the quality or not?).

anyway, was thinking of buying different, but which (quality) brit made ones?

I remember when I was abut 10 and I had to wear my Granny's boots to school they had zips up the side and were hopeless when trying to slide in the snow.

Did I get 'ribbed' about them or what, think that's why I still hate going into shoe shops.