Happened to me. It was snowing like mad, so I thought I could use my hiking boots instead of shoes when I went out. After a few hundred meters, the foam between the boot and the sole started to disintegrate. When I was back home, the soles were only attached at the front, and the dampening material from the heel nearly to the toes was gone.

Holy shit. I did not know this can happen. Now I’m really worried about my nice pair of onitzka tigers that I almost never wear. Does this also mean I should never buy rare shoes from a sneaker collector because they’ll just disintegrate if I ever use them?

A couple of months ago I was invited to go hiking with some friends. When preparing, since I didn’t have some hiking boots, I saw my boots that I got in my military service. That was a great idea because they were already broken in and all of that stuff.

After around 3/4 of the almost 15km hike, I lost the sole on the first boot and a km after that the other side. Had to finish the hike on both without a sole.

Well, they were standing around for like 10 years so I am not surprised that they failed and that the whole stuff between sole and shoe Desintegrated but still.

You forgot to check whether or not the shoes are cake before putting them on.

This happens to rollerblades too. Of course in that case the failure is a little more catastrophic.

Did you even looked at the best by date? Keep them in the fridge until you have to use them.

I’ve had that happen to some hiking boots once - one day their soles just turned to powder - but that was 2 decades after I got them and they had seen heavy use before that.

My grandma once gave me a pair of “new shoes”. They fell apart in the middle of an all-day track in the Alps (big mountains). Turns out she bought them for my aunt years ago and then forgot about them.

Nah I saw this on reddit a while ago when I opened it by accident. It’s a stolen image of someone’s cheap shoes that disintegrated on first wear.

The guy claiming it had the receipts and posted the image like 3 months earlier.

I used to dry my shoes in the microwave as it had a 10% setting.

Once on holiday I did that but the microwave was a bit more ambitious and affected the glue. Half the sole came loose on a walk

Got home fine by tying the laces around and under the shoe.

PS had a mug of water in the microwave for ballast.

On second thought maybe collecting things made of volatile petroleum compounds wasn’t a good investment

Wearing your shoes actually helps prevent this. Basically every sneaker collector has (or knows someone who has) a story like this. The soles get brittle over time, and will fall apart if they have sat for too long. But if you wear them, it helps avoid that from happening. The natural flexing when you walk helps the sole stay flexible. If it has sat for years, it will shatter into dust as soon as you try to flex it.

Sort of like how cast metal is more brittle than forged metal. Because when you cast metal, it hardens in random or crystalline molecular patterns. So there is very little actually holding the individual molecules together, because every join where two crystals meet is a potential fracture point. But forging it into shape with a hammer will create a more sturdy piece, because the hot hammering forces the molecules out of those natural crystal patterns. By moving the metal around, the molecules are able to form much stronger bonds with their neighbors.

Anyone who has accidentally shattered a cast iron skillet by dropping it knows what I’m talking about. People expect metal to bend, because they’re used to thinking of forged metals that have been mechanically shaped while it was hot. But cast iron will shatter like glass, because it is just poured into a mold and the molecules stay wherever they were when the molten metal cooled, even if they don’t have strong bonds with their neighbors.

I went on a hike once with timberland boots that had been in a closet for a couple years. The glue dissolved at the destination (freshwater swimming area) and the rubber sole separated from the leather upper. I had to hike back to the car in moccasins.

I was at a mountain equipment store a week ago and started talking with the owner about how shoes have completely random durability. Even same model from same brand can last years or fall apart in couple of months. She said that very often this will depend on how long the shoe was in a box as the rubber and glue don’t last forever.