1 month of being my shoes

During my entire life so far, I have only had one pair of shoes which has lasted longer than 6 months.  I still remember those shoes.  They were Adidas brand shoes.  They would have lasted longer, but the soles of both shoes fell off.  Actually, they were held together (shoe to sole) by electrical tape for a couple of months.

Although these are backwards, they show
the condition of my shoes

Funny, I remember the day when I had to get rid of those shoes.  The tape had worn off (electrical tape tends to do that after about 4 - 5 days of use, but duck tape does it after 1 - 2 days), and I was walking with the sole flopping around.  I miscalculated the height of my step, and caught the toe of the sole on the ground, which caused it to rip off the shoe completely.  I kept the sole and shoe for several months as a trophy of sorts.

These latest shoes were purchased a month ago from Walmart.  They were the cheapest shoes offered.  I figured that even though they were cheap, they should be able to last a few months before completely falling apart.

 Before I go any further, I should note that I had purchased shoes by Starter before, and they had lasted about 3 months before experiencing serious problems.  I felt comfortable that they would be able to last long enough for me to be able to justify spending a paltry $15 for them (I know, I know... that's WAY to cheap to spend on shoes that should last me 3 months!  I should have spent at least, $30).


I was wrong to have thought that.  Completely wrong.

See the white? That's the sole peeking through
the foot padding. Now that's exciting!

Sadly, they started having problems within one week of my purchase.  The soles and foot pads developed holes so every time there was a hint of water in the area, it would be sucked into the shoe and make my sock sopping wet.  It was as though my foot was a walking vacuum which sucked up all water in my area.  It was pretty annoying, since I was walking about 5 - 10 miles every day passing out flyers.

It just got worse from there: the holes got larger, and the padding seemed to disappear.

Have you every walked around in shoes that no longer have any foot padding?  It hurts.  It's worse than walking on bare feet, because the contours of the sole rubbing against parts of your heel hurt like crazy!  I was walking around like that for the last two to three weeks of those shoes.

On a side note, it seems that every single one of my shoes that I have purchased in the past 5 years have worn out the foot pads in the heels.  I usually keep the shoes because the rest of the shoes are good, it's just that the heel needs replacing.  Why didn't I just get a Dr. Shoell's insert?  Probably because I just wanted a new pair of shoes.  Is that kind of weird?

If I lifted up the front from the insides with my fingers,
you would see my fingers very well.  They were
almost considered open-toed shoes!

Anyway, the last day I wore them was when it had rained earlier in the morning.  There were puddles everywhere, and I thought that I would give the shoes one more hurrah.  Right after I stepped next to a puddle, I felt my foot instantly go for a swim.  I looked down, and not only was my foot wet, but my shoes had rips all along the front, so I could see my socks.  I knew that there were holes in the front, but I didn't know that they were large enough that I could see my socks.

Well, that was the end of my shoes.