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text from Terry Pratchett; art by Higgs who's tumblr i've linked
i can't rember which book this is from -- i wanna say it's Men at Arms but it could even be Guards Guards. Higgs seems to think it's Night Watch, but I'm pretty sure it happened before that...
in the post here
I bought $20 shoes for my restaurant job that lasted less than a month and made my knees hurt. I bought $200 shoes after that which lasted for years. I don't know if that applies to many other commodities, but in this case it was definitely worth it.
I think because shoes and footwear are used regularly and subject to constant wear and tear it's probably a place where quality really continues to matter. Walmart shoes are made out of shit materials and glued together. But a good pair of boots are made from quality leather, they have a good year welt, they've probably got a vibram sole. A lot of industries have stringent requirements on safety features like flame resistant, chemical resistant, puncture resistance, and steel toe caps that put a floor on how cheap manufacturer's can go before their product can no longer be used by a lot of workers.
It doesn't stop enshittification - Doc Marten's got sold a while ago and the post-sale boots are shit compared to the old ones, but you can only cheat so much with boots.