Logbook: Shoes
(Frankenshoes Followup) Salomon X ULTRA PIONEER MID with Carhartt Insoles
Shoes are an occasional topic here and I have had a few posts with shoes but this one has to be the strangest follow-up. I had Solomon X ULTRA PIONEER MID shoes and the insoles wore out fast which sucks but, as someone who doesn’t drive I expect these things. My normal go to shoes are Merrell or Salomon, Merrell are the go to war boots that survive just about everything, Solomon are the light weight shoes you do the million mile march in and they keep going.
But sometimes insoles do wear out , and they make life horrible. They are the inner base of the shoe that makes your day horrible or they make the many steps on your feet not feel like you are playing the drums with your feet. The insole was wandering around the shoe making pain in my feet. I deal with a lot of pain in my feet on the day to day as i am prone to muscle spasms .
Salomon – with their lightweight shoes, they somehow do cut the divide of weight and utility perfectly. They do not fall apart , they last for years. After buying these in early winter I wore these day to day as the traveling shoe. they manage to stay warm in winter and do not leak .. But I did notice the insole starting to shed its lining. A week ago went on a quest to replace the insole with preferably the insole that belongs with the shoes. Merrell does it I figured a higher end Mid would do the same.. No. I looked for an hour and kept falling back to the Carhartt Insite Technology Footbed CMI9000 Shoe Accessory. After Two days they shipped in and I was initially worried they would not fit.
They fit well into the shoe, they had a raised arch to comfort the arch, i put them on and thought this might cause pain and instead i decided to press on and see how it went. After a day the arch relaxed into the Mid , The insole more or less perfectly formed into place. while it adds a bit of weight the comfort level definitely went up.
Mentally… when you do something like this, it feels like using a Toyota part on a ford, Which to the average person would seem like a mortal sin. But the secret here is what the industry tries to make you not pay attention to, That parts can be used on other manufacturer parts within reason.
So when you do the math, I am taking an insole meant for people who do construction all day where weights and tolerances need to be at the top, than place it into a shoe that balances high impact and survivability . Conventionally i just took the best of both worlds where repeated day to day use has a base that is form fitting and comfortable to the point of repeated usage plays out to a higher degree.
While this only a week into this, One could hope this is a force multiplier and a message to a both companies. Carhartt makes boots to survive the Armageddon Salomon makes shoes to climb the armageddon, there is a convergence that both companies are missing here….
So my not so closing thought here is, Sometimes instinct of doing something may not be enough but sometimes taking the gut feeling leap of “this might work” sometimes pays off in kind. So if you need extra miles and extra comfort this frankenshoe experiment shall continue…
Weird things to do with shoes , review- (Carhartt, Insoles with Insite® Technology, CMI9000)
Every now and then you need comfort in shoes, and being like me, I was feeling something in my shoes and the insoles were wearing out and a somewhat new pair of shoes. I do not tend to wear sneakers, due to no ankle support. I wear waterproof hikers year around just about because most time hikers support the arch and makes it easier to walk, as I do have disabilities.
But for the insole to self destruct in only less than 8 months of owning a shoe is pretty bad even though that The Solomon X ULTRA PIONEER MID is a Fantastic shoe. So looking around amazon I saw many insoles, most looking like pure foam and on stuff that is foam I need to use care in selecting a insert, because too much foam like sketchers is an easy path for me to fall on my face.
Given that Solomon does one bad thing here, They do not sell replacement Insoles for their shoes and that should be considered sin. Because a high end hiker that does not support their own brand force the user down the planned obsolescence route is ridiculous.
So I went with Carhartt Men’s Insite Footbed CMI9000 Insole, I figured the look the part. It took a day or two to get them and you know what.. they fucking fit. what surprised me is the amount of arch support. I know these are likely for carhartt boots but, I am willing to science it up for science.
So give or take this Franken-shoe or Dr Solomon and Mr Carthartt hide.. Test will be interesting.. Usually shoe companies do not play nice with each other. so given the fact that these solomon shoes that cost over 179$ and having a insole that died in months. Im willing to give the Carhartt insoles and chance and see what happens. who knows in a week I could be bitching my foot hurts. But you know what , if it works lets see..
I’m giving this a rating of a review in progress…
We are seeing the .com Bust and the Gold Rush playing out in real time.
Some mornings I take a peek at the news and I just read up on things while I wait for my coffee, and one article caught my attention.
Struggling shoe retailer Allbirds makes bizarre pivot to AI, adds $127 million in value
Shoes to …AI ? Did I read that right. Yes I did . The first thing that came to mind was SouthPark. than The 1990s.
A Business pivots so hard that even a contortionist goes damn!
Give or take right now, AI is “hot” but, it’s as hot as running a building full of graphics cards with a failing cooling system. The thing is ALLBIRDS reads as a master class of failure. They make shoes, The shoes become popular. Allbirds leverages itself that they are the Steve Jobs of shoes and don’t read the room. Two years out they are sputtering and failing and have not become the next reebok or nike. They come up with a “brilliant” plan , They sell off all of their assets and jump on the AI train. ALLBIRD than renames themselves to NEWBIRD AI. Sure sure they likely wanted to create an image like they were a phoenix reborn from the ashes of their old company. But they missed out .. ALLbird to AIBIRD (which would of been perfect. like the mimicry of a parrot?). They could of adjusted there merch with a sharpie at that point.
But here’s the thing. A shoe maker has a soft fail, they could of sold off all of the assets that was shippable. Clearance out the shoes, Leverage out the lower markets and find out if the non tech-bro market liked the shoes and pivot there. Less risk than buying the AI lottery ticket. The fact they exited the shoe market at 39 million means they were not cratored.
They have Zero experience in the AI market. They have nothing other than cash to invest, Than they spoke the word they are going to invest an AI and than the venture vultures came. There market cap climbed to 148m . The funny thing is this is all speculative. like the .com bubble. Everyone is jumping in. NEWBIRD AI doesn’t even have land yet, they need to get in line for AI infrastructure, they need to find land that will not overwhelm local infrastructure. So right now they are selling their vision on a feverdream that by the time it comes to realization may be gone.
If ALLBIRD was a tech startup and they had some revolutionary code to help AI this would be a viable path but in the end, this is a shoe company that is buying a shovel from NVidia and trying to be the next big thing when the shovel is a kids play shovel and other companies are using construction machines in the AI market with very small to negative returns.
One last thing, “Stockholders are also asked to approve a charter amendment to remove the company’s environmental conservation public benefit and to authorize a plan of dissolution the Board could implement within 12 months.” Talk about the Theoretical take away from this. live in good nature and ecology than, setting your customer base on fire pissing on the fire and walking away from your mission statement.
For Allbird, They could of paired down the back stock . Sent shoes to influencers , built a brand on tiktok with a close enough reproduction , Kept there ecologically sounding mission statement, built an entire sector off of sephora girls and won big off of “vibes”.
The worst part of all of this, is this is an AI adjacent, that needed to talk about no technology and honestly the fucktons of money thrown at nothing. New Bird AI might be the Futures New Turd AI.
update: You know its bad when Voidzilla enters the conversation….
Teva Shoes the revisit.
A shoe post! It has been ages since i’ve posted anything about shoes , the last time I did was due to a problem to which Teva/Decker shoe company where absolutely incredible helping me out with getting my shoes replaced. Since then I’ve stuck with the company and their shoes due to there reliability, My most recent pair of shoes was a pair of the TEVA Churn Watershoe.
Although most sites list these as a watershoe I can not say that they are since I’ve never tested them in water, they have been my day to day shoes for the entire summer. as far as fit , they are a seemingly good fit and remind me of the Teva X-1 Control shoe. 
Why Teva ever stopped making these shoes is beyond me… If anyone out there from Teva is watching , Please bring back these shoes, those were about the best shoes I’ve owned and I had 2 pairs of those, They weighed next to nothing and were extremely comfortable, The Churn though could be regarded as the cousin to these, while not as rugged as the X-1’s the style of the shoe is based on alike construction and weight although the major differences are in the treads of the shoes the Churns are more like road wear while the X-1 were trail wear. But both shoes are very alike in construction and weight , they are almost like wearing socks treads . If you are on your feet all day these will stand up to the test of the day , I’ve worn shoes that you want to light on fire just to feel a bit more comfortable because the heel or other parts of your foot are in agony .
For the churns I’ve done a ton of walking in them and they do not wear as easy as the X-1s, If you do alot of road walking or walking in building these are the shoes for you, the no lace thing is also very nice due to the fact you can throw them on in a hurry if you are going out.
So my opinion for the shoes.. Awesome!
*Yes! I get to use the shoe tag!
Fun With Teva shoes
In the early half of 2009, I purchased Teva aravalli mens shoes. For years I have worn Teva shoes since Timberland shoe quality went downhill. Now since I do not drive a car, quality of shoes are important to me.
Around Mothers Day in 2009 I purchased these shoes and out of the store they were very comfortable. but, after a month these shoes started to fall apart which aggravated me. The glue to hold the sole together had was very inferior due to the fact that the more you walked the more that the sole separated from the shoe.
After I had returned the first pair I figured that the shoes were a fluke. In june I the second pair and those too fell apart in no time. Since I needed shoes and the older Teva shoes I had some holes in them, the retailer I bought the shoes from did everything in there power to help me out, but to no avail. finally I had emailed Decker shoes the parent company of Teva figuring that i’d get no response. About a week late to my surprise I received an email back
Hi Mike
Thanks for your email. Honestly. We really appreciate you taking some time to connect with us and share your feedback.
First, I’m sorry to hear of your most recent issues with Teva products. You are absolutely correct in your frustration, we definitely owe you a huge apology and a new pair of shoes. I hope you will accept both from me and know that I will help in finding a resolution. Teva prides itself on high performance, quality and, as a sign of our camaraderie, our customer service. I’m sorry to hear we fell short in these department for you.
As you may know, the Aravalli is no longer available in our current line. However, I would be happy to replace your shoes with a pair from our current selection. I would like to offer something like the Riva Leather eVent or the Riva eVent. You can check both out here. If these aren’t exactly what you’re looking for, just let me know if something else stands out.
Once you choose a style, please let me know your size and address for shipping. I’ll go ahead and get these out as soon as possible. Also, for all of your troubles, I would like to also extend an offer for a pair of our Mush flips. I know it’s starting to change seasons but year-around these are a definitely a treat for your feet.
Thanks again Mike for reaching out. We’re glad to hear from you and I apologize again, on behalf of Teva, for your troubles.
Looking forward to hearing from you,
jaime
Jaime Eschette
Teva Public Relations
Goleta, CA
(###) ###-### x1178
please consider the environment before printing this e-mail
After a few email exchanges Teva sent me a pair of Teva Riva Event shoes, These shoes are amazingly comfortable, A little tight at first but after you break in the shoes. they are very light, durable, and weatherproof. I really have to hand it to Teva/Deckers shoes for helping me out and fixing this problem with my shoes. Really as far as shoes go I never thought of Teva for shoes, I used to use Timberlands for shoes but, as there quality went downhill I was happy to find this brand.