Clarks shoes, brand new, rotting in their thousands - check your wardrobes now!

This happened to a pair of plastic-soled Adidas trainers I kept in a plastic bag for a few years.

Some say Doctor Martens quality has slipped in recent years too.

Pollycat wrote: »

Maybe it has.
But my 15+ pairs are 'vintage'.

Sorry, we seem to be talking at crossed purposes. You appeared to be recommending people to buy new ones so I was sounding a note of caution that they might not last like they used to.

Pollycat wrote: »

Maybe it has.
But my 15+ pairs are 'vintage'.

My last pair of Doc Martens bought about 5 years ago fell apart after 4 years. I did wear them a lot though, and they were patent leather ones, so may not have lasted as long as the normal leather ones. The most recent pair I've got is even worse quality than the previous pair. They feel so cheap in comparison, even the shoe laces are thinner and worse quality!

As for Clarks, I have a pair of sandals, bought 3 years ago, worn hundreds of times and they're still going strong. A tiny bit worn around the edges, but that's to be expected. It may not be all of their shoes, or it may be the way people are storing them, if they have damp in their room for instance, that could accelerate rotting of anything!

Quizzical_Squirrel wrote: »

It happened to a pair of my husband's Ecco boots.
Stored them in a box, brand new, for a year after purchase but when he unpacked them this year to start wearing them the soles had turned to sticky slime.

Same thing with a different brand pair of my slippers. I hadn't worn them for two years and the soles had oozed and stained the items with which they were packed.

Never seen this happen before.

Yes, ecco - that was the other brand (as well as Hotter) that I remember reading about.

Sharon87 wrote: »

My last pair of Doc Martens bought about 5 years ago fell apart after 4 years. I did wear them a lot though, and they were patent leather ones, so may not have lasted as long as the normal leather ones. The most recent pair I've got is even worse quality than the previous pair. They feel so cheap in comparison, even the shoe laces are thinner and worse quality!

As for Clarks, I have a pair of sandals, bought 3 years ago, worn hundreds of times and they're still going strong. A tiny bit worn around the edges, but that's to be expected. It may not be all of their shoes, or it may be the way people are storing them, if they have damp in their room for instance, that could accelerate rotting of anything!

I've recently bought a pair of DM chelsea boots, they seem pretty good quality leather and sole. Maybe they won't last as long as my older pairs. Or maybe they'll outlast me.

Doc_N wrote: »

Several - which is why I started checking it out online. So has the wife. Some of the shoes are brand new, some slightly used, but all have gone the same way - a sticky mess of self-destruction where the soles used to be. It makes a foul mess of any surface they happen to be sitting on too.

This was never a problem until Clarks started using super-cheapo materials for the soles to save themselves money. Clarks shoes would last indefinitely - now I wouldn't expect them to last even for a year, and for that reason I'd never buy Clarks again. Other shoes I've had for the same length of time (M&S, Ecco for example) have displayed none of these problems.

I've just checked a few pairs of Clarks shoes - 2 pair of boots that I've had for maybe longer than 5 years and a pair of trainers.
All soles are fine.

I'd keep an eye on your ecco shoes.