I think details are important. A jumbo jet won’t fly as efficiently if a single gauge regarding the altitude malfunctions. Sure there are more than likely back- up systems in place but if that one little item isn’t working properly then the pilot gets distracted from the task at hand. So when I look at a product like a pair of shoes, not only do I review their overall comfort and performance, I also look at the details. If I get distracted from the overall big picture, then that isn’t a good thing. That is what happened with my Keen Truckees.
I bought them over the Christmas Holiday from the sale rack at my local REI store. I wasn’t necessarily in the market for a new pair of casual shoes, but as I scanned the discounted products they caught my eye. I liked the color, material and style immediately and the name Keen conjures up memories and happy thoughts of my H2O sandals. A more comfortable, functional all purpose water and land sandal has never been created in my opinion. So when I saw the Keens sitting there in a casual shoe version I was half way sold before I even touched them.
During the first month I owned them I wore them pretty frequently. They seemed to be a natural fit with the rest of my winter wardrobe and if the weather wasn’t too sloppy I found myself wearing them every chance I could. Then in mid February I accepted a position working in a marketing capacity for a construction company. My Keens turned into my official work shoes and I began wearing them nearly every day. It wasn’t long before I started noticing the little details.
The first thing to go was the decorative stitching around the top, inside portion of the shoe between the laces and synthetic material that reaches up from the rubber sole. I first thought I had picked up a burr or something as the stitching was frayed. Upon closer inspection of the stitching I noticed that the seams were looking a bit stretched. I’d only been wearing these shoes for a couple of months?!!
I trimmed the frayed, decorative stitching and decided I wasn’t going to hold this against the overall performance of the shoes. One bad stitch can happen with any product. The seams were a bit more worrisome but as long as they stretched and didn’t start leaking I could live with that. What I couldn’t live with was broken shoe string that snapped on me this morning. Again…details. I realize that a string can be a replaced. And that a stitch could come undone. And that seams sometimes separate a bit. But after 3 months of wear? Overall the shoes from a distance still look great. What I’m concerned about are the details adding up. If there was no attention paid to the details of a shoe how can we expect strong performance overall after a year or two of heavy wear and tear?
I suppose time will tell on this pair of Keens and I’m certainly not going to hold potentially one klunker against an entire brand, but for right now these shoes get an underperform rating. Maybe after a full years worth of use I can see myself changing this rating to a higher level, but for now I consider them comfortable, average shoes.