IMO anything with that horrible foam (most shoes at this point) is going to last a year TOPS. In fact, running shoes with foam, are supposed to be limited to around 300 miles.

If you are talking about something like a half cab, that has the standard vans soles, yeah, I agree quality has gone down some (same with those new chuck 70s). They feel cheaper, and are made from far cheaper materials.

Personally, I have tons of shoes that are decades old, and still going, but I do not own any shoes with foam (mostly chuck taylors). And I'm apparently not very hard on shoes, somehow.

I think the unfortunate reality is you'll have to buy some expensive, high quality shoes, or expect to throw shoes out yearly.

There are companies like this one who claim to resole running shoes, but I don't know how far they can/do go, and have never used them before.

I‘d generally advice against sneakers. If you want shoes that last, get some quality leather shoes, ideally Goodyear welted ones. When properly taken care of, they can last many years and can then be repaired. Also they will fit very well, after being broken in.

The YouTube Channel "Rose Anvil" is a leather worker and their entire channel is about shoes. They routinely take big brands and cut then in half to do an in-depth breakdown of their materials amd construction.

They made a video recently about a brand someone else mentioned in this thread.

They also have videos where they show their favorite shoes from the past year and what they like to wear personally.

What model of Vans?

I remember checking out some Ecco shoes at the mall years ago, didn’t pull the trigger as they were almost $300 but the way the construction as described to me it sounds like those could last 5+ years.

It's nearly always a false economy to try to reduce the upfront cost of footware (and a tremendous number of other things)

The Sam Vimes boots theory of socioeconomic inequality is a famous quote about how over time the more "affordable" option is often costs much more than the "expensive" option whilst also being a worse experience.

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 the Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socioeconomic unfairness.

– Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms

What types of shoes? High tops? Canvas? Sneakers?