&gt; This is fairly bullshitty and something I question as to being real. My immigrant family has always bought cheap shit. $30 shoes from DSW or wherever lasted a long time.<p>Lasted a long time doing what? Doing farm work every day will wear out shoes a lot faster than just walking around in the streets.<p>&gt; There&#x27;s simply not a price&#x2F;durability relationship in fashion.<p>You need a certain minimum price to get a certain minimum quality, simply for materials expenses. Stuff can&#x27;t get cheaper than that, even if there&#x27;s nothing stopping you from slapping a &quot;premium!&quot; sticker on it and selling it for ten times as much as it&#x27;s worth.<p>&gt; Of course leather boots last longer<p>Leather boots <i>can</i> last longer. You can have crappy worksmanship with leather boots too – sure, the leather will last forever, but if it&#x27;s poorly done, it&#x27;ll fall apart after a year or five anyway.<p>It&#x27;s not just boots, anyway. Computers (Thinkpads and Macbooks last forever, you don&#x27;t hear anyone saying that about the $200 notebooks off Walmart), appliances (a good washing machine can survive their owner while a cheap won&#x27;t last 10 years), …