My Footwear Takes An Unexpected Turn

I am aggrieved to report that despite their strong start the Rivers Chuck knockoffs have lasted but a scant month before developing the old enemy, a tear in the fabric where it meets the rubber strip at the ankle. I don't know why this plagues chuck knockoffs but not chucks themselves. I get the feeling that even without this their days would have been numbed. Their soles were wearing at a prodigious rate, faster than any other knockoff i've worn, and I think that the sole would have worn through in another couple of days regardless. This was a pity as they were certainly the most comfortable of the knockoffs i've worn, and the closest in feel to actual Chucks yet.
Having now exhausted all of the chuck knockoffs on the market I was going to declare the investigation closed and buy the pair of Harlem Globetrotter-branded Chucks that i've been hankering, but I decided to give the other type of Rivers chuck another try. Regular readers will remember that I picked a red pair of these up the day before I went to Melbourne for the Grand Prix and go so disgusted by them that I threw them out and bought other shoes after three days. I decided to give them another go, mainly due to the fact that the three days was a period of abnormal usage (I was constantly on my feet) and that I could have made them more comfortable by putting some insoloes in them. I didn't test them until they broke, so here I go again. Also, the first pair were made out of a horrible type of stiff polyester-style material which didn't breath. My new ones are made of good old cotton, but are in every other way identical to the ill-fated pair of Grands Prix gone by. theyre black, and the best way to describe them would be that theyre what chucks would look like of a 5-year old drew them in crayon. They're wider than normal but stubbier, almost squared off at the toes. They are also the only chuck knockoff to deviate from the normal production pattern. Normal chucks are, as you may know, made of a sole, a canvas upper, a rubber toe and a strip of rubber around the circumference of the sole which holds it all tobether. The new Rivers chucks comprise of canvas uppers enclosed within *one single piece of extruded rubber*!!!! This piece is the sole, toecap and sidestrip combined. It is designed to still look just like a normal chuck. What advantages or disadvantages will this novel method of contruction bring? Only time will tell. They feel quite sturdy, but it's early days yet.