Good Vibe thread: good shoe company, amazing customer service

hey all I at last sent off two pair of sandals to the factory for resoling and one to get new straps.
Cost for both and shipping: $102.
Cost to replace is almost twice. repairs make financial and ecological sense for us.
I get a call from Sheri, who runs Chaco's returns department and she tells me the crack in my swetie's footbed is a warranty repair and if I could tell her his strap preference, they will make a new pair! Free! So I will have $60 credit to cover our remaining two pairs of shoes' resoling.
Just to be nice they are refinishing the strap ends (which I wear out as they drag on the ground... Low volume feet they call it.) on my shoes.
She knows her stuff so well that she was really close in telling me when I bought my pair (1999-- her guess was 98)
This is the same company Bree and I chatted about in Made in China thread.
I still stand behind the company. the fact that they are manufacured and designed in Colorado (about 7 hours of rough mountain driving away from me) is simply a bonus.
Needing a replacement for those ratty birks that have paper thin cork left? Hate the velcro on your tevas?
please give chaco a look. I have worn them exclusively since 1999. Two pair.
Plus they give a chunk of profits to nature causes.

How about you? Do you have a company who has done the right thing? Let us know so we can support them if we can.

 

element are those by request or as marketing?

Another good company for crafters:
Dharma Trading.
the order occasionally is wrong (San Rafeal hippies), but the fix is quick and professional.
be good to them and they will love you!
they once miscut some fabric for us, sending us WAY too much. I'm thinking three times a s much. We called, told 'em what was up. We sent the chunk back , jokingly telling them we'd need it when we hit a good lottery, and they made us "special customers" and we would up with a sheaf of percent off order coupons.

 

the shoes returned today (yay)
I've told this story before (so be quiet, Bree) but, in 1998 I was shooting Sci for fun and a little profit. these were old days, and if you were at more than eight shows you became a loose form of family to the band (every head counts sort of thing)
I had noticed these VERY different sandals the boys wore up to the stage, when they shed them in a big pile.
A bout 8 months later I'm crawling in the sound gear looking for the perfect Kang shot---eyes open---I got it---- when I tripped on the monster shoe pile. Luckily I also work barfoot so I can feel cables, cords and the like.
I check 'em out and I can't see any additional wear.
I teased them about making the big time and affording new shoes later when I get this quizzical look.
These aren't new," billy sez.
I check 'em out again, ok some fray. Average age of a pair on the boys is two years. They all were into being outdoors, some harder playing than others.
bought my first pair that week (1999). They just "got their second sole.
My sweetie kills a pair of birks in 6-8 months. Tevas, maybe they make it 10 months.
So he gets a pair for father's day (he's a step dad)
Next year I get a second pair.
his sole is Terrano, this lug sole that resembles hiking boot sole.
I have the thinner stuff (again , i like to feel when I walk/run...oh yeah, I ran two 5Ks in Chacos)

tell me what they need to survive and I can estimate a repair/maintenance schedule.

 

I really had to crunch numbers, myself.
I was getting a new pair of birks yearly at the half-off (read too damn ugly to sell) sale at US$45 each. My foot placement often cracked the cork, so no resoles.

My first pair of chacos were $75. Now they range $85-$95. REI has mine at $90.
first pair has had two resoles, the first gratis because of glue in the strap tracks (they are the single-strap set up popularized in the late 60s) a few months after I bought them. They have brand new soles, $29, today and I expect another four to five years of wear before needing a new sole. (probably $34 by then allowing for inflation)
However, I own a second pair, so that time could stretch. I wore the Chacos exclusively 350 days a year or more until fall 2003. Assuming a certain number of days in snowboots, and the "oh my god someone from corporate is coming" days at work.
I've had pair two for two years and run in them as well.
So for five years I spent $75 on shoes, or $15/yr. With pair two at REI's price of $90, that pro rates to $18/yr.
Soles add lets say three years of life, another $10/yr.
At that point, I'll probably get new straps or another resole: at let's say $35 and three years of wear- $11.75/ yr.
Remember I'm actually rotating two pairs here, so I could double or more the life between repairs.
I think I can live with paying an average of $13.75 a year for (two pair of) shoes I'm not tossing in the landfill and not having to break in and are made within a day's drive of my home.
Less than 4 cents a day.
I and the planet can afford this.
I'll skip eating at a restaurant once every six months.