If you wear Danskos.... How often do you replace shoes?

[dannygirl04]

I've never had a pair of Danskos, but bought something that the shoe salesman said was very similar called an Ariat. They were extremely comfortable for the first 6 months that I had them. I could work 12 hours and my feet and back felt great. Now I come home after work and my back is still good, but my feet are killing me. I feel like I need to go to bed with ice packs on the bottom of my feet.

I stopped in a shoe store today to look at the Dansko shoes again (it was a toss up between the Dansko or the Ariat when I bought the first pair). It seems insanely fast to me for those shoes to have broken down already.

How often do you have to replace your Dansko shoes? Do you replace them right away when your feet start to hurt?

[Coffee Nurse, BSN, RN]

I've had my current ones for about three years now, haven't noticed any changes in how they or my feet feel. My last pair I had for three years to; I don't remember why I replaced them, but I seem to recall it was aesthetics (i.e. scuffing) rather than function/comfort-related.

[Altra, BSN, RN]

My Danskos last about 2 years. Other shoes I have worn in my nursing career have only been good for 6 - 8 months.

[Farawyn]

I replaced my last ones after 2 years, for a shallow, cute reason- I wanted the rainbow leopard print. The dark cherry patent still felt great, but I was over them!

[Coffee Nurse, BSN, RN]

They have good customer service, too. I had a pair in between these two that for some reason started ripping after a few months - the upper separating from the sturdy stitching/stapling attaching it to the sole. Local cobblers couldn't fix them, so I contacted Dansko and they sent me a new pair straightaway.

[Farawyn]

Yes, I can sell Danskos when I retire. I love them that much.

[Littleguccipiggy]

I tried Danskos, but they hurt my feet because the arches were too high. I wear z-coil shoes, they're not the cutest, but they've been really comfortable, and lasted me about seven years. Just my two cents/

[Twinmom06, ASN, APN]

if you need to ice your feet look into seeing if you have plantar fasciatis. No shoes will be an easy fix for that...

[mmc51264, BSN, MSN, RN]

I had Danskos 20+ years ago when they were still made in Sweden. They are crap now. I have very high arches so I cannot wear the newer version or the Alegrias. My feel love Skechers. I have been wearing them for about 5 years now (not the same pair) and they are the only 12+ hour shoe I have found for me. Everyone's feet are different.

[roser13, ASN, RN]

In my opinion, the worst thing about Danskos is that they never "appear" to wear out. It is tough to retire them because you really can't see any wear, but you know in your heart that there must be. So.... To answer your question, I keep mine forever and a day.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

Last fall I had a pair of Danskos I've had forever when we went on vaca to a lovely old inn. There was one of those gas fireplaces in our room (sooooo romantic ) and we'd been out slogging around in the rain all day, so I parked my damp shoes near the bottom vent before I went to bed after checking verrrrrrry carefully to be sure it wasn't too hot. Not hot at all-- those things are pretty much for ambiance, not heat, and we turned it off before we went to sleep anyway.

The next day we got ready to go to a group outing and my sweetie noticed something black on the rug as we went out the door, looked like, I dunno, like maybe something from the parking lot that got tracked in. Didn't recognize it so we kept going. And over the next hour and a half the whole soles and heels of my beloved shoes completely decomposed. I mean, really, fell apart in chunks, the soles split in half, the heels just ... disintegrated. Lucky there're really solid heavy plastic pieces inside the heels or I probably would have broken both my ankles.

All I could think was that there must have been some petroleum-based fumes or something from the fireplace plumbing (and isn't that a comforting thought ) that reacted with the composite in the soles/heels and just caused the molecules to separate. They were a decade old, so they really didn't owe me much, so I just tossed 'em when I got home, but geez. From solid to crumbles in an hour or two. Stunning.

But I went online and bought another pair stat. I love 'em.

[ItDepends]

My only issue with Dansko shoes is the amount of time to break them in. It took about 20 wears for my first pair. The newest pair I purchased were the XP pro - They were AWESOME right off the bat. No need to do more than a few days to break them in. Love them!