First Things First

Before I even get to the details for my next walk I have to get this out of my system.  Here it is -- my rant on excessive consumerism and our throwaway society.

Pictured here on the right, my hiking boots that I wore on the Camino.  On the left, my new boots that I'm currently breaking in.  What is wrong with this picture?

Both pairs of boots are the same make -- Vasque.  Both have Vibram soles. I wore the boots on the right for 18 months before walking in excess of 800 kms on the Camino.  You'll notice the heel is worn down to the underlying plastic and the treads on the sole are flattening out.  You'll also notice that the top, the boot part, is in perfect condition.  No splits, no rips, no holes. They are comfortable and perfectly formed to my feet.  But they don't have enough left on the soles to carry me on another walk.  No problemo -- I'll get them resoled.  Right?

Wrong.

First off, in my smallish city, there used to be a shoe repair.  Used to be.  Old guy owned the place.  And I used to take stuff in to him, small stuff mostly. Heels needing replacing, leather stitching on sandals or purses.  I asked him once what was going to happen when he retired and he got kind of snarly and said young people just don't want to learn the business these days so it would just close.  And that's exactly what happened.  But then some younger guy did open a shoe repair.  I took a few small things to him and he'd fix them on the spot, no charge.  I told him he needed to charge for the small stuff or he wouldn't stay in business long.  He didn't.  Stay in business long that is.

So now I need to find a place to resole my boots.  And I traveled far and wide to find these guys.  First place told me they couldn't do it, the boots weren't designed to be resoled.  Next place was a combination shoe repair / blacksmith.  Guy like that should be able to do something as simple as putting a new sole on a boot.  Yeah maybe hobnail boots from a bygone era. Not so my Vasques.  They weren't designed to be resoled.  Third place, same thing.  They weren't designed to be resoled.

Built in obsolescence.  It's just cheaper now to toss something and replace it than it is to fix it.  Because we are a consumer driven society.  If we repaired things instead of buying new the economy would be in the tank in no time. And that drives me bug shit.  Don't even get me started on electronics and technology.

So maybe old Mr Shoe Repair guy wasn't right after all.  Maybe it's not that young people don't want to learn the craft of shoe repair, but that shoes are no longer designed to be repaired.

And because of that I have to go through the whole blister phase all over again.