Designer vs High Street: Shoes

I’ve seen a couple of articles on the internet in the last couple of weeks focusing on the price issue of designer items. Now we all know designer pieces tend to be a lot more in terms of price when you compare them to their high street counter parts, but does designer always necessarily mean it’s better. If any of you have seen Gok’s TV show where he pits designer clobber against the high street (plus a little bit of tweaking) you’ll be aware that the high street always wins. I personally grew bored of that show after the high street won twice in a row, but it got me thinking in real terms which is actually better? When should you be saving some money and investing in designer items and when should you opt for the high street?

This week we’ll look into every ladies favourite item; shoes. When it comes to shoes I’d probably say mine are split 50/50 I have some designer shoes which I tend to wear less and the shoes I wear frequently tend to be from the high street. I’m a bit of a saver, you know one of those people that spends the earth on an item then likes to keep it as fresh and new looking as possible, which usually results in little wear.

What I’m not going to do is declare a ‘winner’ as such, both have their benefits and you can still look stunning regardless of where your shoes are from. This article is really just to get you thinking more about what you really get from each one and also the disadvantages of each, in real terms.

First off let’s look at what you’re actually getting when you go and spend £400 on a pair of designer heels. One of the most common responses you’ll hear after the words “how much!?” is probably you’re just paying for the name and you are… to a degree. But let’s look and what else you get that you don’t on the high street. First off, generally the design and balance on designer shoes are better than high street shoes. A lot of the high street stores copy high end designs and slightly tweak them so they don’t infringe on copyright but that usually means they end up looking slightly odd and unbalanced.

You also have to consider that you’d get glossy leather patent instead of man made synthetics, a shoe that has been stitched together by hand rather than glued and a leather sole which can be resoled countless times. This is usually why designer shoes are considered an investment as they’ll last the distance.

Another area that you may not have even considered is the subject of ethics. Usually we’re not bothered about who has made the clothes we wear and even in this case it’s still a grey area. But consider this, the £15 shoes you bought from primark more often than not would have been made by someone working for peanuts. While this is not always the case with designer shoes more often than not you can usually find good quality heels have been made in Italy. So if these sorts of issues do concern you, you may just want to check where your shoes were made.

That’s it for the first part, in the second part we’ll have a look into the true cost of designer shoes vs the high street and also practicality.

Let us know what you thought of part one by having your say below

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