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Patagonia recently announced that most of their footwear can be resoled by Mountain Soles out of Portland.
Resoling is nothing new to footwear, up until maybe 25 years ago. Shoes now have enough externalized costs that it makes more financial sense to throw them out and buy a new pair whenever the old ones are done. Blundstone encourages this behavior on their website, claiming:
“There have been many technical advances in footwear construction methods, which enable volume manufacturers to produce a quality product economically. As a company we have expanded our use of this technology, particularly through the use of direct injection sole moulding in preference to the method of ’sticking on soles’. The security of the sole bond and the economies realised through adopting this technology, make it impractical to repair and resole footwear…”
However, a little bit of research (ok, 30 seconds and Google), and I found out that my boots can get new soles for the princely sum of $65. Not a bad deal for boots I paid $120 for 5 years ago. I’m sending my boots in early next month, to see how it comes out.
There are better choices than after-market hacks for dealing with poorly thought-out (at least from the re-use / re-new side of the sustainability picture) footwear. Alden, Allen-Edmonds, Russell, White’s, Wesco, and a few other companies make shoes and boots that can be rebuilt, and usually for significantly less than a new pair of shoes.
None of these companies make an inexpensive product, but they’re made in the US, of quality materials. No global wage or environmental arbitrage is used to offset the cost of production, unlike the average pair of sneakers.
What’s the upside in this for retailers and marketers? This is another facet of selling less as more. One pair of White’s is going to cost your customer the same as 3 or 4 pairs of Kenneth Cole or what-have-you, but last well more than 4 times as long. Much longer, when you counted recrafting. It’s a value, rather than price sale.