[IshKebab]

Yes it's super annoying, especially for shoes, which take a ton of effort to find.

I guess they do it to appeal to their biggest customers - people who can't resist buying way more shoes than they need. But it does seem weird for some brands that aren't exactly fashion houses, e.g. Ecco, to do it.

It must cost them a fair bit of money too. I wonder how much cheaper you could make shoes if you only designed one set and then fired all of your designers...

My solution is to just buy a few pairs when I find shoes I really like. Reduces the problem at least.

Also I've started buying Levi's jeans - really expensive but at least they have some styles that don't change.

[vel0city]

Levi's jeans does have pretty consistent styles and has model numbers that haven't changed their main style identity for decades.

But, I swear the different factories will often produce slightly different cuts. I used to buy 517's all the same size, and depending on which country of origin they'd all just fit a bit differently. A little tighter here, a little looser here, but all for what are supposedly the same measurements. Some enough out of whack I refuse to wear them. I don't bother trying to get the exact same anymore.

But I do have to say they have definitely come closest to actually keeping things pretty much the same across time. I can't really say that for any other mass market clothing brands which don't include custom tailoring.

[secretsatan]

I also swear by Levi’s, they also have good range of sizes with a very rare combo that fits me perfectly, and they are well made. I tend to just instinctively buy a pair whenever i see they are on sale, i now have too many and haven’t bought any in a good couple of years.

Converse shoes also have styles that haven’t changed in decades, while convenient, they’ll usually only last me a year.

[quickthrowman]

> It must cost them a fair bit of money too. I wonder how much cheaper you could make shoes if you only designed one set and then fired all of your designers...

Alden has been making the same models of shoes for decades but they aren’t cheap. Assembly labor and materials make up most of the cost for producing shoes, and Alden are made in the US.