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A certain brand of shoes comes with a lifelong guarantee. Is this the usual sales talk? Perhaps yes, since it is difficult to imagine shoes lasting for ever. On the other hand, it would be good if shoes of many other brands could last a little bit longer. Everybody wears shoes, so this is a universal issue.
With the prices of shoes going up all the time, it is rare to find the quality also increasing with the rise in prices. On the contrary, we often find the quality being reduced while the prices are hiked. In some cases it may not be wrong to state that the prices become double while the quality is cut by half. The buyer is at the receiving end, and has no choice except to buy whatever the market provides.
Since most people around seem well shod, it implies that a larger number of shoes are being discarded in a much shorter time. What passes off as good shoes seem to be merely money spinners for the shoe industry, and the buyers are completely at a disadvantage.
It is true that the demand-supply gap determines the prices. In the case of shoes, the demand for good quality shoes is so high, that the supplies are pretending to meet these high qualities, and are always jacking the prices to exorbitant levels. Quality of course does not get improved.
Imagine buying a pair of hiking shoes that come apart in the middle of the first long walk when you are in the middle of nowhere, or formal shoes that come apart from the sole during the first week or wear. Imagine these fears forcing people to buy.