I’ve been wearing my sandals for around 20 years. I guess I shouldn’t be proud of that fact however I kinda am. I of course only wear these sandals during the summer months here in Halifax, Nova Scotia Canada, so I’m not wearing these for an entire year.
At one point the soles began to delaminate and so I started shopping around for another pair of similar sandals. I was having a hard time finding a pair that I liked though.
The great thing about my 90’s Teva’s is that they are very comfortable. They can also get wet and will dry off quickly. They have neoprene strap padding that adds to the comfort and quick drying capabilities of the sandal.
I had worn these sandals on pretty much all of my major camping trips throughout my 20’s and 30’s. These included difficult portage trips throughout Algonquin park and our many whitewater canoe trips. On many occasions I just ended up wearing them the entire time, even portaging in them since if I got them wet they would dry. It is true that satndals don’t provide the greatest support for portaging, but I always had strong ankles and feet so never had too much trouble.
A little later on I did buy some Teva aqua socks (which I also still own). These I used for inside the canoe while kneeling going down rapids. I found the tops of my feet would get irritated and scraped up from the sand if I was going in sandals or barefoot. They also protected my feet from sunburn since its difficult to keep applying sunscreen while wearing sandals.
How do you make your sandals last longer? You can repair them. For my sandals I ended up purchasing Freesole shoe repair adhesive. I just pulled apart the weak points in the sandals and squeezed in a generous amount of the Freesole and left to dry with some weights on top. After a day or so they were fixed and I have been wearing them ever since.
Now for many of my shoes or boots I repair them with shoe repair adhesive. I have been using Shoe Goo, which can be purchased at Canadian Tire. I used it to repair the holes in my aqua socks as well. I just squirted some on the holes and damaged parts and left to dry. I can tell that it strengthened these areas and I will get more use out of them.
If you are wanting to stay on the cutting edge of footwear, than I don’t recommend doing what I’ve been doing. However, most sandal design has not changed much over the years and in many cases there are more corners being cut in sandal making by using less quality, or just less material.
All in all, I should at least get a few more years out of my sandals and then at that point I won’t be retiring them but I’ll be burying them because they will be truly dead.