I've had a pair of white Fubu shoes I bought years ago to do yard work and they held up to everything. Yeah they were dirty and looked old but they had zero issues. On moving day into our new home my wife tossed them out. They shoes were comfortable! That was about three weeks ago. She bought me a new pair of Fila shoes recently for the yard I will be trying them out tomorrow.
Keen Amblers Absolutely rock solid, comfortable, and well priced. They have a vibram sole and toe-cap for added durability
I put a lot of off-road miles on my sneakers. I always keep a pair that I use strictly for fast-packing and hiking, and I hike nearly every day. I do wear boots in the winter when the snow gets deep, otherwise it's usually sneakers. I have tried most all of the major brands over the last 20 years. I bought a pair of Salomon trail shoes in 2008, and they have held up like no sneaker I have ever owned, 5 years and it seems like they will never die. No de-lamination, still have good tread, stitches have not blown out, interior does not even have holes. I don't know the model, they say Sensifit on the side, and Contagrip on the bottom. I don't know why they are so tough, but they have been the best wearing sneaker I have ever owned. The caveat here is that these sneakers do not get worn on pavement, so YMMV. Still, none of my trail shoes have ever lasted this long, and remained as comfortable. I just put new laces in them this year, even the original laces held up great.
Caveman times? Converse All-Stars were invented in the 1920s. People wearing dress shoes and walking on sidewalks are in the present. Neither are fighting sabertooth tigers. Please try to keep up.
Regarding the whole support/cushioning discussion, I've recently switched over to Merrell Barefoot series and I couldn't be happier. I have very flat feet and use Superfeet insoles or similar in my Merrell trail shoes and hiking boots. I've found that the lack of 'support' in the Barefoot actually helps me regain a natural balance with my feet and uses muscles that were previously inactive in my feet. I walk/run on concrete all day long and I take public transport to uni, which means walking and carrying my EDC pack everywhere. I never really like going back and using 'supportive' shoes anymore, I love being able to 'interact' with my environment. I only go back to hiking shoes/boots when carrying heavy loads; the support is then necessary to protect against arch collapse and ankle damage. At first I had sore feet due to the lack of cushioning and normal support, but the muscles built up and adapted. I can't see how using your natural muscles as your 'support' is any less effective than insoles, personally. I previously had knee pains when I ran with my trail shoes, but after adapting my running technique to mid/forefoot running, the pain has stopped. I also think these barefoot shoes are quite tough, as they have the same construction as any other Merrell shoe (outstanding quality, from my experience), and they lack the usual EVA footbed which tends to collapse after heavy use. The Vibram soles should last a good while.
I have a pair of the five fingers that I bought when I started walking again. I also bought a pair of the Merrell Barefoot "Mary Janes." I love these shoes. I didn't have problems with sore feet as much as some muscles in my legs, as your body does have to sort of relearn walking, but I could wear either of these all the time and be happy. I have a very high arch, and I used to look only for shoes that could support my arch--feel snug up against it. The more I read about the cross-country runners who use essentially a piece of leather with a strap and how important it is to be grounded (google "earthing"), I think we may have been doing ourselves no great favors with some of the shoes we've put on our feet. And the five-fingers sole wears like iron.
I have a pair of Feelmax "shoes" I use at work. Maybe for about half a year now, I forget. So far, they don't show any signs of wear, but I only use them indoors. I like them so much that I've been eyeing their more sneaker-like models for general use. (And they even make boots!) I usually wear boots (like these), all year round. But I threw away the original insole almost right away. Instead, I use a felt insole, like I've always done. It's just a shoe-shaped flat piece of wool felt, i.e. no arch support at all. Don't know if that's good or bad, but I like it that way.
New Balance 574's are what i've worn for years. One pair typically lasts me about 2-3 years of steady wear before they need to be replaced. I've recently purchased a pair of Thorogood boots though.....hopefully they'll last much, much longer!
How'bout a pair of PUMA Sneakers that stopped a lawnmower from cutting my foot off !!!! WWAAAAAAAAAaaaay back in the 80's I was mowing my parents lawn and slipped on shingles the roofers left on the walk, I fell down backwards and the mower rolled back over my foot, by luck the mower hit the sole and my foot stalled the mower dead. The blade went in the sneaker about an inch into that super dense foam they used. The mower was going full throttle and them days there was no handle release shut off on most mowers. It felt like I hit my toes with a sledgehammer and I lost nails on two toes but I didn't get a SCRATCH. THANK YOU PUMA
I got a pair of gently used Pumas that lasted me for 2 years after the old owner gave them to me. I eventually wore the soles down to the foam, but the uppers held together perfectly. I also got a lot of compliments on them... the only pair of shoes that I've gotten compliments on in years.
I've always liked Adidas Gazelles; favorite shoe. I keep buying the same shoe over and over when the old pair wear out.
It's less effective for the same reason your neck muscles are less effective as 'support' for your skull than your spine. If you've got a broken neck it doesn't matter how strong your neck muscles are, same thing with your foot. If there is a defect or injury with the bone structure or major tendons and ligaments then no amount of muscle training will help that. I did, and along with the advertisements for very expensive "grounding" products I learned about a new kind of medical quackery. We do not absorb magic energy by direct contact with the ground, and if anyone could prove any of the operative claims of "earthing" under scientific conditions James Randi would give them a million dollars on the spot. Runners wearing a piece of leather with a strap is the footwear equivalent of wearing a magnetic bracelet. I know I sound a little... opinionated... on this but there is a lot of sound medical knowledge about the structure of the human body, and if I'd known about it odds are I wouldn't live with the pain of a collapsed arch because I believed various flavours of Woo Woo and Hocus Pocus about how feet (don't) work. Learn from my experience here. Wear a good quality supportive shoe for the job with a genuinely anatomically sound insole like SOLE, Superfeet, or other non-squishies.
I've had a pair of nike air shoes for about 2 years now and they have held up great even after i used my knife to figure out if the shock absorber on the heel was actually filled with pressurized air. (it was)
I think science and modern medicine is really good at describing medical problems, and then figuring out how to correct it. As far as prevention is concerned, it's not so clear cut, since every body is unique and has been subjected to a unique lifetime. A Kenyan who's been running for their entire life is not comparable to a sedentary American, or even an athletic one. There are quite a few studies on the results of non-traditional shoes' effects on running, and most don't show evidence that either is significantly preferable. Here's one that popped up today: http://www.runblogger.com/2013/05/army-study-no-difference-in-injury.html
I got a pair of Chrome Kursks a few years ago, after running (pun intended) thru pair after pair of Converse All-Stars. The feel of the shoes is basically ready for the Apocalypse. These DEFINITELY need to be broken in tho. For a while. After that, they were pretty awesome. I'd wear them on my motorcycle, with no fear for my feet.
That study's unsound. Right off the bat you have different demographics wearing different shoes and since it's self-selected there's no way of knowing whether or not these people wound up choosing their footwear over many years of practice and trying different shoes or what kind of experience they have. There's also no examination I can see of what type of injuries correlated with which type of footwear which is just as well since there's no examination of running form and the demographic differences would confound it anyway. At BEST you can draw from that study that younger, fitter, healthier soldiers don't report immediate harm from wearing minimalist footwear... which isn't much considering younger, fitter, healthier people can get away with pretty much anything before it catches up to them in middle age.
And we've wandered a bit off topic, myself included, so let us return to the discussion at hand--er, or foot--what are your toughest sneakers?
went to the zoo the other day ,ive got new suede sambas,im like "I not goin down that slightly muddy path in my sambas,even if it is to see a black panther"
