this post was submitted on 05 Sep 2023
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chapotraphouse
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That’s the stupidest thing about it, the build quality on these sought-after sneakers is no better than the no-name sneakers at a quarter the price; typically they’re made in the same factories with the same level of materials.
I agree with you that a lot of brands should be ashamed of their price/quality ratio, but of course the world isn't always black and white (expensive is bad Vs cheap is good). I have bought some pretty cheap shoes for work where the soles were disintegrated after a few months and the safety nose (whatever you call it in English, not my native language) was already showing through the rubber. This meant they didn't met safety standards anymore for the places I work and I had to throw them away. Then I bought a more expensive (literally double the price) German brand and I already have them for over a year with little wear (so they are already lasting more than twice the cheap ones). Then I have also had an expensive Italian brand that didn't even last two months before the heel padding was completely gone. The problem I have with cheap brands (and especially no-name) is that whenever I buy them and they turn out to be good, the next time I go to the shoe store they're suddenly out of the assortment (seems to happen a lot here in Europe, especially the weird Amazon UUKKO/UFELLGOOD brands etc.). This means I'm taking a gamble each time I buy the no-name brand.
I have had similar experiences with sneakers. Some brands are truly terrible regardless we there they are expensive or cheap.
What I'm trying to say is that if you find a cheap brand (the 25-40 euro range) a lot of the time here they either become expensive eventually or they somehow are taken out of the stores assortment for whatever reason. Buying a slightly more expensive or expensive brand at least usually gets me reliable results. And I know that most of the time the brand will still exist.
Yeah sadly the reviews on websites like Amazon are a lot of times completely meaningless. I know some brands that give away free stuff for reviews (I'm amazed it's even allowed) on certain tech websites and forums. I mean if you give people stuff for free then it rarely happens they will be negative about it so it's basically paid shilling (being paid with a "free" product).
Also a lot of consumers who "review" something do it almost immediately after purchase. Especially with low quality cheap crap that means you will never know if someone is still satisfied with it after a few months since most people don't bother to redo their review "it's only 20 euros".
That is true, cheap can mean quality but not frills or hype, and sometimes it just means garbage. However, what we’re talking about with these sneakerhead shoes, is prices in the $200-$400 range new. So a quarter of that would be like 45 to 90 euros.
Ah fair enough. I have never spent that much money on sneakers. I think 130 euros is the max I've ever spent on a pair of sports shoes/sneakers.
Yea I mean the example of good working boots being an example of how thebpoor stay poor is pretty fundamental but like you said nobody's arguing against paying more for high quality durable footwear.
They're arguing against a sneaker being worth $300 because it's a slightly darker shade of blue than a sneaker made of identical materials in the same sweatshop that sells for $60. And you have to make sure to never step anywhere dirty or walk too much to avoid creasing them.
Also people spend hundreds of dollars on shoes and then spend their lives consumed with not stepping anywhere dirty, with the shoes they paid more for than a bombproof pair of boots.
I think collecting is fine as long as you have genuine interest in the object. But 90% of collectors sit on their shit they don’t even like because some certification company graded as A+++ Super Piss Perfect and valued it at $300,000. It’s like buying 30 houses for “investment reasons”