Buy well, buy once
I think a lot of times this philosophy is just rich people justifying paying a lot for high status items.<p>a pair of Crocs is 50 bucks and that's one of the highest quality pairs of shoes you'll buy for the price. you could buy 10 pairs of Crocs for a $500 pair of Alden's so even if the crocs only lasted a year, it would take a decade to recoup the investment on the Alden's.<p>but the crocs don't have the same status that Alan Edmonds or Alden or Fiorentini does.<p>Same thing with the G-Shock watch versus a Rolex.<p>If you really want quality look at what middle class people are doing.  Crocs, Kirkland, G-Shock, Corolla etc.<p>All this stuff is top quality but rich people wouldn't be caught dead in them.<p>Another thing rich people like to do is repurposing something completely trivial. This dude probably paid as much or close to shipping the shoes than a new wallet would have cost.<p>This guy gets a feeling of satisfaction that they're making the world a better place by repurposing their shoes. Then they go to their job where they earn a lot of money defending companies who gave a small town cancer or a massive oil spill or wholesale invasion of privacy.