What's the difference between good shoes and bad shoes, aside from style?
Anyone can buy inexpensive knockoff Nikes or Jimmy Choos. What makes high-quality shoes so much better? Is it just the quality of materials used? If they look the same and the materials are sturdy, why spend more on brand names?
Answers ( 1 )
Great question, Sarah.
I'll suggest five reasons:
1) Quality Control
Knockoff brands may be made at the same factory with exactly the same materials, but they very rarely are subject to the brand name quality control processes put in place. So non-obvious issues with the shoes are far more likely - bad internal stitching can irritate, heels can break, and so forth. Nike knock-offs are particularly notorious for air cushioning bursting leading to the sneaker squeak fashion disasters. While you won't burn the house down with shoes (like you might with fake electrical goods), this should still be a consideration when you buy.
2) Materials And Craftmanship
While knockoffs may be made at the same factory and with the same materials, they may also not be. A general rule is the cheaper they are the cheaper they are - and cheap means they will fall apart. A $100 pair of shoes will last much more than 5 times as long as a $20 knockoff version of the same pair of shoes.
3) Ethical Supply Chains
In the 1990s, most high-end brands did not care about their supply chains - the people in the factories who actually made Nikes were none of Nike's business. That is manifestly not true in 2021. While major brands certainly use cheaper overseas labour, they generally don't use slave labour or tolerate sweatshop conditions. Knockoffs almost certainly do, so buying kockoffs means you support child labour. (But note: check individual brands and their policies and implementations... some high fashion brands are much better, some much worse)
4) Support The Designers
While maybe not so critical for huge brands like Adidas, Nike, or Jimmy Choo, support for boutique brands is what keep fashion creative and artistic. If this is of value to you, then supporting boutique designers and helping them "go big" should be a consideration for you. Not doing so invokes the tragedy of the commons - if everyone does it there will be no new and interesting fashion designers. (You can take this further and buy boutique or boutique/major collaborations only. This is more expensive again, but doubles down on supporting designers)
5) Self-confidence
Why are you buying branded shoes? If it is to "show off" then 90% of that is the attitude you can then bring. Wearing a hot off-white/nike collab sneaker will give you that; wearing something you know or suspect is a fake will most certainly not. So if it is a psychological thing for you, fake brands will not have the impact you hope they will. Conversely, if you just love the look then maybe a knock-off is for you? Certainly if you aren't made of money it is an option - and this has lead to a remarkable sub-strata of knock-offs that range from "identical" to "terrible" - not all knock-offs are created equal!
I would also point out that even if none of the above five points were true, the knock-off brands are still breaking the law in most countries, so you may want to consider that too.
In short - support the people who make the shoes (workers, designers, and retailers) and guarantee you're getting a quality product. Or take your chances if you have very good reason to.