Requiem for Sandals
This pair, bought in September of 2002. Additionally, they’ve been to Europe a couple of times, all over the US, from East Coast to West Coast.
I was running over it in my mind, getting ready for this. Some years back, when this pair came back from Piper after resoling, there was a Dave Piper archetypical hand-written note, “Last time we can resole these,” but that’s because I have a heel callous, which wore through the top layer of leather.
This pair must’ve been resoled say, once a year for a decade then every other year after that, until I got a single new pair? I would guess more than ten and less than twenty. Finding that original link, helped. 9/2002
So are sandals worth a grand? Way I figured that, at essentially $100 per resole, that works out to at least a grand paid for footwear.
Think it was more like $70 when I started, but over the years, with postage, it’s gotten right up to that buck for the resole, fresh straps thrown in for free. Worth it?
It’s one of the few business models I can endorse, besides, the single product is excellent. Wore them for years. Got some miles on them, from daylong hikes through Austin, then exploring the Riverwalk, and all the points in between.
Requiem for Sandals
Think I’ll bury them in the backyard. Best I can do? Originally, I wanted to shadow-box frame them, retired but archetypal.
Hint: I’m out of any wall space for artwork.
What I recall, and my memory is porous, after a few years, still in the double-aughts, there was small change to the design, the back/heel anchor points, the design was modified. That was all.
Then maybe sometime after that? They added the slip-on version. Still, the webbing, sole, the soul, it all remained the same.
I’m not at many of the outdoor festivals anymore so I don’t get to say, nod hello, at the Piper Family Sandals business. Still, to this day, it’s an example of product, a single item, done well.
Do one thing properly.
