Submitted by Apollo144 t3_11on0za in BuyItForLife
Hey guys! What's your experience with shoes with Vibram soles? Are they BIFL? Thanks!
Submitted by Apollo144 t3_11on0za in BuyItForLife
Hey guys! What's your experience with shoes with Vibram soles? Are they BIFL? Thanks!
Pretty much any shoe can be resoled. GYW is really just a slightly more fool proof method than glue. But glue is really quite reliable as well. The issue is really the mid sole - which requires a more extensive process than just resoling.
Cemented soles are virtually impossible to effectively resole. A lot of cobblers will turn away shoes that are cemented. Welted boots are always going to be a better investment, Goodyear or otherwise.
Uh, definitely not. I’ve glued many soles. Very easy and cheap.
There's a difference between using some Liquid Nails to put a sole back on and getting your shoes professionally resoled.
Cemented shoes and boots, being those that are fused and/or glued to the upper in most cases cannot be resoled. Once the soles peels away, it's not uncommon for the midsole to as well which pretty much cements (haha) the fate of the shoe.
I figured removing the glued some would ruin the shoe?
No you can remove an old sole and glue on a new one.
No. Vibram is very durable, but I've worn them out and I'm still alive.
Can confirm this person is still alive
Soles are consumable...
Nope, I’ve worn em out on my leather boots twice now. Re-soled them twice. Took over 10 years of hard use to get to this point.
What brand are the boots out of curiosity? Must be tough.
Zamberlan. Buy the full grain leather with the proper stitched sole. It’s the heaviest (and most expensive) build-style but they last longest of all and suit re-soleing best of all. I’ve had 2 pairs of Zamberlans like this, the previous pair my Dad got me when I was 17 and they lasted a decade, then I got some cheap ones amd they lasted a year. Then I got my current ones and I still have them.
I've heard nothing but good things about Zamberlan and their durability. I switched from Solomon to Vasque recently and while Solomon were decent build quality, two years is all I could get out of them since I Portage a backpack heavy loads often. The Vasque have been incredible and after over 200km of heavy rugged use are still in VERY good shape. If the Vasque don't live up to the 4-5 years I'm hoping to get out of them I might have to try Zamberlan.
Edit* I also make sure to only purchase full grain leather boots as they are always the most durable it seems!
High quality rubber but traction quite literally requires the rubber to wear off. By definition all rubber soles will wear out relatively quickly - especially those with greater traction.
I had a set of danners with vibrant soles. They lasted about 10 years, and I got them resoled about every year and a half or two years. At that time, I was really hard on boots so that was pretty exceptional.
So not buy it for life, but tough for sure.
They will last and are worth it but don’t count on any shoe being BIFL, especially if it’s going to need to take abuse.
No sole is BIFL, but there are plenty of BIFL shoes/boots. Look for Goodyear Welted and high quality leather uppers for BIFL shoes. My go to brand is Grant Stone
I have the Thursday Loggers and it has a 1/2” vibram fighter outsole and I’m confident that it will last at least 10yrs before it needs a resole so to me it’s a bifl boot. I love the vibram outsoles.
Absolutely not. They seem to not last as long as other soles. Vibrant is vastly overrated
My most recent vibram soled boots are about 50% worn after about 8 months
Vibram has different models. The 100 is very durable but lacks comfort. The 2021 is comfortable but lacks durability.
Hello /u/Apollo144! Thank you for your submission! The AutoMod thought that your post might be a request type post and has changed the flair accordingly, but if this was wrong feel free to change it back!
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
Yeah, and the shoes can't be resoled so deffo not BIFL.
That said, they last as long as any other shoe, and aside from looking goofy and being useless the instant there's a drop of water on the ground, they're super comfortable.
Edit to say that you need to consider that getting into town shoes requires an upfront investment in toe socks too.
I think he is talking about vibram soles in general as there are many of them on many different kinds of boots. Most of my heritage boots have viram soles of them of various types. A red wing iron ranger uses a Vibram mini lug 430 sole. So I believe the OP is talking about vibram soles in general not the five finger stuff they sell.
This person is not talking about Vibram Five Fingers. They're talking about Vibram rubber soles made by the same company that produces the Five Fingers.
this_for_loona t1_jbtckr6 wrote
No sole is bifl. A bifl shoe will allow re-soling.