Right, I have owned around 10-15 pairs of docs over the years. So I decided to give the "for life" boots a try last year. Bought them at one of the DM stores in London. When I was considering them I had trouble finding much information about them, so here we are, thought I would pass on my experiences.
They are frankly no different than the normal doc's. I bough the 8 hole satin leather boots, and they are indistinguishable from the normal boots of the same spec. The only real difference is a little "for life" badge on the underside of the sole. Otherwise the appear to be of the same build and quality of the normal 8 hole boots. As such they have worn out at about the same pace as the normal ones. I am 40, and not terribly rough on them, but I do wear them just about every day. I polish the leather every other month or so, and this keeps them looking pretty good actually. I usually get about a year out of a pair these days before the sole develop's a split across the ball of my foot letting water in.
As an aside, I bought my first pair back in the mid 90's and that pair lasted thru the last 2 years of high school, and 4 years of college. eventually the leather split on them, but the sole still had tread. They were 6 years old, and I was doing no maintenance whatsoever, in fact I am a gar guy, so I was spilling all manner of solvents and chemicals on them (this is what dried out the leather and caused the split I would imagine) and crawling around under cars with them. I mention this to say if they made it 6+ years of just about industrial use, and now only last 1 year of taking my toddler for walks and going to the grocery store, there has been a DRAMATIC fall off in quality since they offshore'd the production to the far east.
Anyway, like clockwork, these lasted 14 months and the same old split happened. Called DM (twice) and got a machine telling me to leave a message. I did, twice. They never called back. Emailed them and finally got a response. They told me where to mail them and send £20 along with them. Did so, and a week and a half later a new pair arrived.
Frankly I think this is a pretty good deal. I am SURE redwings or the like would last MUCH longer, and I am aware that they still make the original Doc's under a new name up north somewhere, but frankly I am self aware enough to admit that at this point I am just buying them because I like to wear doc's. Much like Levi's they are a staple that has always been and always will be, to my mind, "cool".
That said, I am 40 and I think skinny jeans look stupid on men, so I am by no means an authority on fashion. Nonetheless, I like doc's, and I am happy to put up with sub BIFL quality in the interest of vanity.
Anyway, I hope this helps any of you considering getting them. They are not made any better than the normal boots, and frankly are just a fashion grade boot at this point. But the return process was pretty painless, and for the rest of my "natural life" (as per the guarantee) I can keep swapping them out at £20 a time and that is worth it to me. By my math, I am now at the break even point from a cost standpoint, so the next time I swap them, it will actually be new Doc's for £20 and that is worth it to me.
Submitted February 03, 2017 at 05:49AM by Blaizefed http://ift.tt/2l2vAwQ
