Buy well, buy once
I think a lot of times this philosophy is just rich people justifying paying a lot for high status items.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.but the crocs don't have the same status that Alan Edmonds or Alden or Fiorentini does.Same thing with the G-Shock watch versus a Rolex.If you really want quality look at what middle class people are doing.  Crocs, Kirkland, G-Shock, Corolla etc.All this stuff is top quality but rich people wouldn't be caught dead in them.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.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.