sole destroyer

Walking in Wadi Digla in my new desert boots, worn only twice before, but, which already showed signs of egregious wear and tear on the soles (the little central stubby bits having come away from the 'commando' grip pattern) I suffered, for the first time in my life, complete sole breakdown- losing a heel and all the tread off one boot and half a heel off the other. Half a heel is worse than a whole heel- you end up walking like Byron after one too many camparis. (I discovered the problem getting down slopes made suddenly dangerous and strange, like riding a bike with a flat tyre). The heels, too, rather interestingly, were full of ordinary cheapo yellow foam rubber coated in this cruddy plastic that disintegrated as easily as a sandcastle against the tide. I could just picture that Chinese factory boss making the decision to use nothing but the worst materials. The topsides, however, made of suede were fine- just as comfortable as before- the reason I bought the boots in the first place. I thought I was being smart- buying a no-name brand because of fit not kudos. How wrong I was. It was funny too though. I showed the shorn soles to everyone and we mused on how I could probably get them repaired, maybe with old car tyre soles like they use for sandals. Maybe without heels. Heelless boots- why not?