Hasta La Ideas

It’s not often that I feel guilty after watching a manufacturing video, but this one did it to me.

I go through a pair of sneakers in under a year, and after seeing the absurd amount of labor, processes, machines, energy and materials that go into each, I can’t believe that a) they wear out within eight months and b) they don’t cost me $2,000 per pair. Watch how your average run-of-the-mill running kicks are made:

Good gosh. Fabric, leather, plastic, resin, rubber, foam, reflective material, adhesives; CNC sewing machines, manual sewing machines, hydraulic presses, stamps, glue-spraying nozzles, embroidery machines, heating machines, and all that handwork. And I will break them at the seams or wear the soles out in less than 250 days by doing nothing more strenuous than daily walking. I think I ought to start searching for a more sustainable form of footwear, or find a way to comprehensively recycle them.