# what's the average life time of your leather soled shoes



## BAB (Dec 22, 2007)

if you have, say, 10 pairs of business shoes you use on a regular basis and rotate them every day, try to avoid rain and snow when wearing leather soled shoes, what's the average 'life expectancy' of your shoes?


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## ocj (Apr 2, 2008)

Currently, I have eight pairs of business shoes and do rotate them every day. I must admit that I also wear my shoes during rainy days. That said, I expect my shoes to last for about three - four years without being resoled.


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## Rossini (Oct 7, 2007)

Do you mean the life expectancy of the sole or of the shoe itself?

A sole could last 3 to 7 years. The shoe itself could be triple that. I have yet to find out!


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## Scoundrel (Oct 30, 2007)

BAB said:


> if you have, say, 10 pairs of business shoes you use on a regular basis and rotate them every day, try to avoid rain and snow when wearing leather soled shoes, what's the average 'life expectancy' of your shoes?


Forever?

However, I foresee you getting the soles every few years, the heels every few months.


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## Concordia (Sep 30, 2004)

I've heard estimates of 180 wearings per sole (if it's a good one). The heels obviously go faster, but that is a minimal fee for upkeep.

You can get a handmade shoe resoled maybe 6 times. So that's 3 years worth of wearings, all told. If you rotate carefully among 10 and avoid snow/salt abuse, say 30 years.


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## Distiller (Apr 10, 2007)

The other question: How fast can you ruin them - at least the soles?

With my business travel and expat lifestyle I can't fly around my whole garderobe all the time. So it happens that I ruin a couple of soles on a single rainy day on certain less-than-speckless streets and trottoires of eastern Europe (sometimes sprayed with chemicals from road sweepers). 
What abuse! But is it normal? Or how long should they last when mistreated?


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## BAB (Dec 22, 2007)

Distiller said:


> The other question: How fast can you ruin them - at least the soles?
> 
> With my business travel and expat lifestyle I can't fly around my whole garderobe all the time. So it happens that I ruin a couple of soles on a single rainy day on certain less-than-speckless streets and trottoires of eastern Europe (sometimes sprayed with chemicals from road sweepers).
> What abuse! But is it normal? Or how long should they last when mistreated?


well, that's the sad thing about living in moscow (esp. in winter)... moscow on a summer night is a beautiful place, though...


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## The Deacon (Nov 25, 2006)

I resoled a pair of double soled Black Alden shell cordovan captoes about 5 times during the 14 years I owned them and the uppers were still in fair shape albeit very pliable. I think they would have retained their shape better if I'd known about shoe trees during the first 3 years when I wore them three times weekly. Longevity depends on a few factors, quality, how often worn, upkeep/preventive maint. But y'all know this!


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## smujd (Mar 18, 2008)

Good shoes will last almost forever. I have a few pairs of loafers which are going on 10 years of use (each has been resoled about 7 times). I'm currently wearing an old pair of Justin boots (at least 15 years old but I really don't recall when I bought them)--not that these are good shoes, but they are rugged as hell. They've been resoled ~10 times and are still going strong.


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## Teacher (Mar 14, 2005)

Scoundrel said:


> Forever?
> 
> However, I foresee you getting the soles every few years, the heels every few months.


Every few _months_ for a pair of heels if you have ten dress shoes? I'm 210 pounds and I don't wear mine at nearly that rate.


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## Rossini (Oct 7, 2007)

Teacher said:


> Every few _months_ for a pair of heels if you have ten dress shoes? I'm 210 pounds and I don't wear mine at nearly that rate.


My heels don't seem to wear any faster than the soles.


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## yachtie (May 11, 2006)

Rossini said:


> My heels don't seem to wear any faster than the soles.


3 to 1 heels to soles (i'm a pretty severe pronator)


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## The Louche (Jan 30, 2008)

*Much quicker*

I only have about 4 pairs of business shoes in regular rotation so I've resorted to Topies (this is another conversation altogether). Before Topies, I was getting about 7 months to a pair of soles (with toe taps kept up). Now I get almost 2 years to a pair of Topies, indefinate life on the soles since the Topy getts replaced as soon as it wears and the sole's never touch the street. Interstingly enough, as hard as it seems I wear my soles, I've never had to replace a set of heels, presumably because I keep my heel taps in perfect shape and replace as soon as they wear...


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## speedster (Jan 13, 2008)

I have found sole life to depend on tanning and grain of leather (often coinsides with price) See for Instance HandGrade & BenchGrade C&J's. HG's are oak tanned and imo just for that sake supperior than BG, so I would almost count double life on a pair with oaktanned and densly grained leather soles. so 3-7 is an estimate that would hold true for normal walking without adverse rain exposure (but some). 
I have more formal shoes that now are close to 20years, full resole once. But these where only worn about once every two week. But I stil think they look good:
https://img247.imageshack.us/my.php?image=lottussebpc1tj6.jpg https://img143.imageshack.us/my.php?image=lottussebpc4vt1.jpg https://img394.imageshack.us/my.php?image=lottussebpc5vw9.jpg

Lottusse (close to Carmina in quality, same area of production)
Have a Church Consul as a replacement, but stil wear this on occation.

HTH


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## BAB (Dec 22, 2007)

i wonder if applying some shoe (leather protection) cream to the soles prolongs their life span?


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## Teacher (Mar 14, 2005)

speedster said:


> I have found sole life to depend on tanning and grain of leather (often coinsides with price) See for Instance HandGrade & BenchGrade C&J's. HG's are oak tanned and imo just for that sake supperior than BG, so I would almost count double life on a pair with oaktanned and densly grained leather soles. so 3-7 is an estimate that would hold true for normal walking without adverse rain exposure (but some).
> I have more formal shoes that now are close to 20years, full resole once. But these where only worn about once every two week. But I stil think they look good:
> https://img247.imageshack.us/my.php?image=lottussebpc1tj6.jpg https://img143.imageshack.us/my.php?image=lottussebpc4vt1.jpg https://img394.imageshack.us/my.php?image=lottussebpc5vw9.jpg
> 
> ...


There _are_ different grades of sole leather; however, all but the very, very cheapest of dress shoes use oak-tanned leather on the soles. Chrome- and vegetable tanning wouldn't be sturdy enough.


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## Rossini (Oct 7, 2007)

Still, Speedster's shoes - after 20 years - are a great advert for investing in quality.


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## Will (Jun 15, 2004)

High quality soles - and I'm too lazy to look up the tannery but makers such as Edward Green use them - wear out at perhaps half the rate of the stuff used by mid-market makers such as C&J. At least, that's been my experience with my one pair of C&Js. 

With periodic re-soling, properly kept shoes of good make last indefinitely. I have some that are forty years old and look as good as new. Better actually as the upper has aged.


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## KenR (Jun 22, 2005)

Allen Edmonds soles can last up to about 2 years if worn once a week. However, I can usually get about 3 recraftings out of them.


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## speedster (Jan 13, 2008)

Teacher said:


> There _are_ different grades of sole leather; however, all but the very, very cheapest of dress shoes use oak-tanned leather on the soles. Chrome- and vegetable tanning wouldn't be sturdy enough.


I agree, grain densety is one. A bespoke shoemaker I spoke to said soles from the likes of Trier based Raderbach although rumored hard wearing are harder to "break in" so there are always conssesions ... even blake shoes have their mission, say in a soft and light summer loafer.


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## Teacher (Mar 14, 2005)

Will said:


> High quality soles - and I'm too lazy to look up the tannery but makers such as Edward Green use them - wear out at perhaps half the rate of the stuff used by mid-market makers such as C&J. At least, that's been my experience with my one pair of C&Js.
> 
> With periodic re-soling, properly kept shoes of good make last indefinitely. I have some that are forty years old and look as good as new. Better actually as the upper has aged.





speedster said:


> I agree, grain densety is one. A bespoke shoemaker I spoke to said soles from the likes of Trier based Raderbach although rumored hard wearing are harder to "break in" so there are always conssesions ... even blake shoes have their mission, say in a soft and light summer loafer.


J.A. Rendenbach is the highest-end maker. Westan's best stuff was also outstanding, so good that my cobbler bought up every single sole he could find when they went out of business. I miss those soles...they lasted years of weekly wear.


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## Scoundrel (Oct 30, 2007)

I was referring to leather heels. I prefer leather. From my experience leather heels last a season. However, my rotation is half of the OP. I imagine one with ten shoes could stretch the life of leather heels to half a year to a year. Rubber is a differenty story. I believe rubber will last as long as the soles.


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## JerseyJohn (Oct 26, 2007)

Back when I wore cheap mall store shoes, I never bothered to resole them - I just bought another pair. When I stepped up to J&M's about 15 years ago, I started maintaining them. Since then, I've never thrown any of my J&Ms, AEs or Ferragamos out, as the uppers are still fine on all of them. So to the OP, I'd have to say at least 15 years.


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## SnowGuy (Feb 18, 2008)

Most of my shoes with leather soles have worn down pretty quickly (need to resole after 12-18 months of twice a month wearing). However, there is one (partial) exception: I have 2 pairs of cap toe Nettleton shoes, bought at the factory in 1981 or 1982, and with each pair worn on average of twice a month since then. A really good cobbler persuaded me to put Topy's on them in the mid-1980s, and I think I've replaced the Topy's around 4 times for each pair. I've replaced the heels closer to 10 times. I use cedar shoe trees and polish the shoes infrequently (maybe twice a year). With all that, the leather uppers and linings are still in excellent shape.


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## Teacher (Mar 14, 2005)

Scoundrel said:


> I was referring to leather heels. I prefer leather. From my experience leather heels last a season. However, my rotation is half of the OP. I imagine one with ten shoes could stretch the life of leather heels to half a year to a year. Rubber is a differenty story. I believe rubber will last as long as the soles.


Ah, that explains it. This is my experience as well.


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## billiebob (Apr 20, 2005)

I get about 20 days wear out of a set of Kiwi plastic toe and heel taps. Slap new ones on in 5 minutes. 

Soles? I have too many shoes to need a resole yet, plus I topy all the shoes I wear the most or wear casually. Topy rules. 

I will say that the very softest sole leather I have seen is Alden. It provides a nice cushy walk, but burns right away, especially when wet. The toughest sole leather I have is the CJ for Polo stuff on boots and shoes. Like iron and a little jarring for long walks. EG and Grenson are a nice balance, though I do wear the EGs (not topied!) less so I don't wear them out.


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## StevenRocks (May 24, 2005)

From past experience, if one wears the same pair of shoes each day, they will wear out in about a year under normal use. If you had ten pairs, they could last you a decade under ideal conditions.


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