Trail running shoe shelf life

I’ve bought additional pairs of trail running shoes after finding a model and size that works. I think one pair sat around for three years before I rediscovered it under other crap. No problems.

I get about one year of daily wear plus hiking and backpacking out of a pair. I’ve read many trail reports from PCT and similar hikers that get 500 to 1,000 miles out of a pair.

Many people got only 100-200 miles out of Brooks Cascadia 9s and 10s, including me. I don’t think that’s acceptable.

— Rex

I got 600 miles each from 2 pairs of Cascadia 9. I’ve got a third pair bought at the same time waiting to go this summer. They still seem fine.

I put epoxy glue on the toe seam stitching and other known wear points on the mesh before using them. This completely stopped the stitching wearing through, and the mesh going into holes.

Yeah, they last quite a few years on the shelf – the good brands anyhow.

Cheers

Perhaps relevant:

https://www.wired.com/2015/05/sneakers/

Fortunately, storing away a spare pair or two would be a convenience, not an obsession.  I’ll consider myself lucking if I can even still hike in 20 years.

So storing a pair for 4 years seem likely to be OK?

Would you consider ASICs a good brand in this respect?

I tried to stockpile shoes once. I wouldn’t say that the shoes were altered by their time on the shelf, but my feet widened and lengthened over that time so the point that I could not wear them.

My feet have widened from and A to a B over the years but have been pretty stable for the last 10.  If they were to widen to a C, finding new shoes would be easy so this isn’t a concern.

Some shoes can fail if they aren’t used for a couple years. Supposedly wearing them around a little bit prevents this issue. I think the glue or something fails. I have seen this with winter boots that people leave in their closet too long. I’m not sure what brands do or don’t this issue.

The WIRED article Andy linked to was quite interesting. A few thoughts came up:

• Polyurethane and similar plastics are found in all kinds of outdoor gear, including fabric coatings for clothing, packs, and tents, and self-inflating sleeping pads. Knowing that heat, oxygen, humidity, and mold can break down those plastics, you might want to store your outdoor gear a little more carefully for a long life.
• Smog can play a big part in rotting plastics, especially ozone and oxides of nitrogen. I’ve watched real Ensolite pads (the cream-colored heavy ones) crumble in three years of 1970’s Riverside smog. An air-tight bag helps.
• The article mentions argon gas as a good preservative. That’s what we use at home to preserve open bottles of wine, and it works great. Unfortunately, argon in small bottles is kinda expensive, and in large welding gas tanks not very practical.
• An ideal storage environment might be an airtight box, filled with argon, and kept at a low temperature – but above freezing.

Back to the main thread – for shoes you’re going to wear out or outgrow within five years – not worth the trouble of special storage, Unless you live in a bad smog area –  put them in a sealed plastic bag.

If you want to buy now, and wear in 10+ years – check local welding supply stores for argon.

— Rex

I usually have a spare pair of Salomons in the cupboard for up to two years and have not experienced any deterioration.  I generally have one pair in use and a second in the cupboard.  When the first pair is getting to end I start looking for a replacement unless there is an earlier runout of the model I want.  I got caught out by Salomon dropping the Synapse (the name is now transitioned to winter boots!). I think trying to store several years worth of footwear is not worthwhile due to foot change issues.