(I’m trying to adjust my shopping habits for quality, long-lasting goods from reputable brands. This isn’t some hailcorporate thing)
I will never always trust a brand, there are some brands that have good trust, but I’ve seen too many brands screw people over for money.
I will say currently, Darn Tough Socks, Keen Shoes, EVGA, Milwaukee Tools, if you are in the cinema / live production world Teradek, and Yamaha.
My only complaint about Darn Tough Socks is that they never seem to wear in. I bought a half dozen pairs several years ago, and all of them are like brand new still, which is great, but they are also stiff and tight like I’ve never worn them. I wear them predominately for work, and I’m on my feet all day, so that’s a testament to their staying power, but damn, I wish they would stretch a little.
Do you have lightweights? I find those to be tighter than midweights, which also seem a bit more plush.
Darning is a method of mending socks. It is a nerdy pun. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darning
Nah you can’t trust Keen anymore as of like 7 years ago. They switched to much cheaper shoe materials on their presidio walking shoe that was super popular, but the price didn’t drop at all. At the same time, they started inserting huge globs of rubber in the heel of their hiking shoes so you are forced to use their brand of insert that has a hole to fit said bump.
I’ll be honest, just recently bought new shoes from them haven’t gotten a chance to wear them in yet, the previous pair was pre-covid. But they look and feel exactly like my old pair did when I bought them, so maybe their work line hasn’t suffered yet.
And this is why I’ll never be loyal to a brand, as long as they’re good I’ll keep buying their product, when it’s not good I’ll stop.
I forgot it’s already bee n 5 years since Covid fuck. Keen definitely got worse way before Covid so it was probably 7 years ago. Updated. You honestly might just not know what you’re missing if you’ve only had shoes from them after the change. As I recall, almost every component of the Presidio got cheaper and it went from a nice leather walking shoe with a well padded tongue to just another synthetic sneaker with a thin tongue basically for the same $110
