Do Shoes Have a Shelf Life?

RJM62

RJM62

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Geek on the Hill
I got a pair of shoes from Amazon delivered today. New Balance "trainers." They fit my 11 EE feet better than any shoes I've worn in a long time, so I'm thinking about buying two or three pairs and storing them away for future use. I figure if I buy them now, they'll probably be from the same lot. Or at least the same factory.

The problem is that I think I remember reading somewhere or other that shoes actually have a shelf life. Apparently the glue rots or something along those lines.

I've reached out to New Balance, but they haven't responded yet. I guess they think I'm a nut.

I do have a food sealer, so I can hermetically seal the shoes if that will help.

Any shoe experts in the area, please advise.

Thanks,

Rich
 
RJM62 said:
I got a pair of shoes from Amazon delivered today. New Balance "trainers." They fit my 11 EE feet better than any shoes I've worn in a long time, so I'm thinking about buying two or three pairs and storing them away for future use. I figure if I buy them now, they'll probably be from the same lot. Or at least the same factory.

The problem is that I think I remember reading somewhere or other that shoes actually have a shelf life. Apparently the glue rots or something along those lines.

I've reached out to New Balance, but they haven't responded yet. I guess they think I'm a nut.

I do have a food sealer, so I can hermetically seal the shoes if that will help.

Any shoe experts in the area, please advise.

Thanks,

Rich
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Don’t know about shoes, but I bought a second pair of hunting boots once and shelved them for about 6 years. When I finally broke them out they looked great but I quickly noticed that everywhere I walked there was black stuff in the carpet. The soles disintegrated, I had to throw them away.
But, I have shoes from 10 years ago I still wear that are fine. I think the boots were a fluke.
 
Personally, I would just have 3 pairs around and just wear them interchangeably.

I have shoes that I have worn a couple times a week for 10 years that are still structurally sound, and I have had shoes that were ready for the curb after 6 months.
 
Whatever product I develop an attachment to the manufacturer shortly therafter ceases production - stock up while you can. Store in cool dark place away from electrical sources of ozone
 
As a pilot I can tell you in an authoritative tone that shoes stored in a dry place out of the sun or any extreme temperatures should last for many years.
 
I wear out running shoes at a rapid clip. 1-2 pair a year. When I found a particular style/size that worked well for me (I used to have plantar fasciitis), I bought 8-10 pair and would unbox a new pair every 9 months or so, rotating the last pair to yardwork duty, and retiring the previous yardwork shoes. I noticed no difference between the first and last pair of shoes I opened from that buy.

On the other hand, I have had two pair of casual shoes (oxfords and the like) where the manmade sole disintegrated after 5-10 years sitting in my closet. One pair (Clarks) the sole turned into bubble gum, and the others (forgot the brand) the manmade rubber soles came apart when I was at a funeral service. The heel on one of the shoes literally tore off while I was walking across a parking lot.
 
I used to buy a particular Reebok training shoe three pairs at a time. This was years after they were introduced, I figured some day they would discontinue them.

That's what happened. I was able to find a few more pairs on the internet, but now they're all gone.

I never noticed any issues with them, even though at some point I was wearing shoes that were five or six years old.
 
wrbix said:
Whatever product I develop an attachment to the manufacturer shortly therafter ceases production - stock up while you can. Store in cool dark place away from electrical sources of ozone
Click to expand...

That's what happened to me. The cheap-ass Dr. Scholl's "Tundra" model that Walmart used to sell for < $30.00 fit my feet well and wore acceptably without falling apart first. I've been wearing them for years. But now they seem to be gone. A few of them are still out in the wild in various sizes, but they don't seem to be making them any more.

So I scoured the Interwebs and found the black New Balance ones in my size, and they fit even better than the Dr. Scholl's did. I'd like to stock up, but I don't want them to rot away in storage.

Maybe I'll call New Balance tomorrow and ask them.

Rich
 
Ken Ibold said:
Personally, I would just have 3 pairs around and just wear them interchangeably.
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That's not a bad idea. Maybe they need to have feet in them. I've noticed that vacant houses seem to deteriorate more quickly than occupied ones; so maybe my New Age friend who tells me that everything needs "life energy" is right, and the shoes simply die if they don't have the life energy of feet living in them.

Rich
 
You’re probably on the right track with the vacuum sealer. That would at least keep ozone away from the rubber. Store it in a dark place and I bet they’d do okay.
 
These shoes have held up well in storage....

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I just know they will come back in style some day.
 
I have a hard time finding comphy so I order up when I find a cut I like.

I actually have 5 different colors of the same New Balance shoe and have rotation for a few of them...a beater set for grungy work, a pair not afraid to get dirty but still presentable, and a new and shiny set that I try and keep crisp. As the new ones get beat, the cycle get rotated down...but yeah, it sucks when they get discontinued!

I have several pair several years old with no issues beyond normal wear and tear.
 
Cooter said:
Don’t know about shoes, but I bought a second pair of hunting boots once and shelved them for about 6 years. When I finally broke them out they looked great but I quickly noticed that everywhere I walked there was black stuff in the carpet. The soles disintegrated, I had to throw them away.
But, I have shoes from 10 years ago I still wear that are fine. I think the boots were a fluke.
Click to expand...
Did you buy the boots from the NEX?

Sounds eerily similar to the well known 'Bates Blowout' phenomenon…..

https://news.usni.org/2017/09/07/ba...trated-uniform-shoe-failures-look-new-options
 
Ken Ibold said:
Personally, I would just have 3 pairs around and just wear them interchangeably.

I have shoes that I have worn a couple times a week for 10 years that are still structurally sound, and I have had shoes that were ready for the curb after 6 months.
Click to expand...

Do this. I did. Unfortunately they're Nikes.
 
Fearless Tower said:
Did you buy the boots from the NEX?

Sounds eerily similar to the well known 'Bates Blowout' phenomenon…..

https://news.usni.org/2017/09/07/ba...trated-uniform-shoe-failures-look-new-options
Click to expand...
I haven’t heard about that, now I want to go check all my Bates shoes. I recently had to buy a $165 pair of Belleville’s because I went TDY with 2 left boots. I was already mad I had to buy them, and then they started falling apart within a week. It was a total ripoff, but they did send me a new pair. The flight suits are even worse....at least I don’t have to buy those.
 
I order mine from shoebuy.com. I go thru a pair about every 90-120 days. Wearing 10 1/2 6E’s makes it very hard to find shoes. I get whatever New Balance ones that are not black or white and fit. I don’t think they have had the same model number more than once or twice when I’ve ordered. Pricewise, they run about half what the NB store close to me has them for. I get lots of sale info and coupons pretty often from the website, and usually have the shoes about 3 days after I order.
 
Craig said:
I order mine from shoebuy.com. I go thru a pair about every 90-120 days. Wearing 10 1/2 6E’s makes it very hard to find shoes. I get whatever New Balance ones that are not black or white and fit. I don’t think they have had the same model number more than once or twice when I’ve ordered. Pricewise, they run about half what the NB store close to me has them for. I get lots of sale info and coupons pretty often from the website, and usually have the shoes about 3 days after I order.
Click to expand...

Type the product code inside the tounge into Amazon and see what pops up. Found a shoe I liked at NB Outlet, went back for more and it was gone...punched it into Amazon and found 14 different colors of same shoe in all sizes in stock!
 
Shawn: Haven’t had luck doing that. Can find the style but not the width. 6E’s are hard to find.
 
Craig said:
Shawn: Haven’t had luck doing that. Can find the style but not the width. 6E’s are hard to find.
Click to expand...

Are you pretty good at swimming underwater?

:D
 
Had a friend tell me once if you really like a product buy a lifetime supply because inevitably they will cheapen it up and change it.
 
I find that the padding in the soles of running shoes tends to get hard after a year or so; I used to buy three or four pairs of what I liked, but no more.
 
I have routinely bought multiple pairs of shoes if I find one I really like. However it's usually only a second or maybe third pair. Typically I do this with Harley Davidson boots as they switch styles regularly. I haven't had any shelf life issues.
 
DFH65 said:
Had a friend tell me once if you really like a product buy a lifetime supply because inevitably they will cheapen it up and change it.
Click to expand...

I still have three pairs of Held 273 motorcycle gloves in storage, in addition to the pair I'm riding in now.
 
Funny this topic came up... my brother in law's Clark's he's had forever but rarely wore had the soles melt down and completely crumble yesterday.
 
I have a shoe rack in my garage in TX. Not air conditioned so it can be warm and humid, but never as bad as outside. If I leave shoes in that rack the soles tend to delaminate even with no use. I tossed a very low mileage pair of Merrill hiking boots recently for that reason. The soles literally came unglued. I have a pair of Saucony running shoes suffering the same problem. Conversely I can leave boots and shoes in my heated garage in Alaska for 10 years and they stay like new.
 
+2 on the vacuum sealer.

I had a pair of Ecco shoes I took to India for a business trip. They had been in my garage for a year pending wearing out my other pair of work shoes. Walking from the hotel room to the lobby (in a brand new hotel with polished white marble floors), they disintegrated spectacularly, leaving a black, gooey mess everywhere I stepped. I walked back to my room in socks and head hung low watching probably 30 people scrubbing the floors everywhere I walked with the hotel manager looking on.
 
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