Based on the excerpt from this Discworld book, what other items do you use regularly that would fit in this theory? (Boots and shoes are fair game!)
Text transcript for people who want it:
[The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.
Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.
But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.
This was Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socioeconomic unfairness.]
Bonus: suggest ways you can repair/restore your item/other people's items.
Here's my example: Nice Hoka shoes are typically 100$+, but Sketcher's Work Sneakers are ~40$. The Hokas would last a lot longer and be more ergonomic, but that price is way out of my reach. The Sketchers get disintegrated by a year of use.
What I do is add arch supports and gel shoe inserts (9$ iirc) into the Sketchers, and replace those when they wear. It adds about two years of life to the shoes! :)
How long do the hoka's last? I usually get $20 shoes that last a year before the soles wear though, so they'd need to last at least five years to break even. How long have you found them to last?
Unfortunately, I can't afford the price just to try Hokas. They were recommended by another nursing student, and seem to be a gold standard shoe for a lot of healthcare workers.
From what I've heard, though, it "depends on your usage".
What do you do to make your 20$ shoes last as long as you can? And tips and tricks?
When mine were new, I waterproofed them. Regular maintenance, cleaning and re-treating them with a silicone spray extends their life substantially. I also have repaired and re-glued mine when repairs were still at a small stage, to extend their life. I have re-sewn tops to the soles, too. I wear my junker shoes when conditions are wet, saving the good shoes from water damage. YouTube teaches about anything, now, including basic shoe repair.