Having a shoe break on you is a bitch. Having a shoe break on you after 5 wears turns me into a bitch. That is what happened to me at the most inconvenient time a few weekends ago.

I was running late to meet friends for dinner; we had a reservation. I grabbed these yellow wedges I bought from Payless last year (they were perfect with what I was wearing). I’ve worn these shoes about 5 times in total and they were in like new condition (so I thought). I don’t have much luck at Payless (even though my friends do) but I found this pair and another white strappy sandal that I liked last summer.

Just as I reach the subway the shoe’s strap breaks. I look down and I’m dumbfounded, how the hell did the strap break like this.

Usually, good shoe manufacturers uses the shoe’s upper material and attaches it to the the metal ring needed to make the strap. Payless decided that elastic material was sufficient instead. This resulted in a shoe I couldn’t fix. I had to deal with walking in this stupid broken shoe all night because I couldn’t miss the reservation.

My friends were like, the shoes were cheap who cares. I do actually. When I buy something, it’s for the long term. I had plans for those yellow shoes. What galls me more is the waste, if they used the upper material instead of elastic, I could have repaired these shoes. It would have cost more than the shoes did, but I could have salvaged them. Now, they goto the garbage.

If something cheap breaks on you fast and you have to replace it all the time, is it really worth it? It seems that this stuff ends up costing more.