In November 2020 I had a sale on my Etsy shop for a pair of vintage Zodiac lace-up boots, these are the boots.
The boots were shipped promptly and arrived within a couple of weeks, the customer then contacted me to tell me she was thrilled with the condition of the boots, she left positive feedback and all was well, happy customer and happy seller, however, a couple of days after I received another message from the same customer who was completely devastated and in panic... the gorgeous boots were trashed. The photos she provided were proof of the fact, and here is her story:
She had purchased the boots to wear on her birthday celebration and wore them to walk to the venue, she commented that it was very cold and when she arrived at the venue was shoe-less as the sole came apart and could no longer walk in the boots, her party was ruined and she was not happy at all. She amended her feedback and left a negative instead.
I completely understood the situation and gave her two options, one to send the boots back, or to contact a cobbler to have the soles re-glued.
During the various messages back and forth I explained to her that well crafted leather goods especially name brands like Gucci, Hermes, Louis Vuitton and Chanel to name a few, have in-house repair shops, although the Zodiac boots are not in the same brand category of the mentioned elite brands, however it is well known by vintage fashion aficionados that all well crafted high quality leather goods can be repaired.
The customer loved the boots so much that she was open to search for a local cobbler, after a few days she did find a cobbler and had the soles re-glued, we came to an agreement that was satisfactory to both of us and the issue was resolved.
This was learning experience for both the customer and me because prior to this situation I was unaware that lengthy storage and climate can have negative impact on the adhesive materials of vintage shoes, this case in point; These Zodiac boots were stored and worn in warm California for probably 5-10 before I acquired them, so these boots from 1970s looked great and seemed solid when I packaged them for their long trip to Finland but unbeknownst to me the adhesive had deteriorated.
If the boots had been sent back to California the issue may have taken longer to be discovered, however these boots were immediately subjected to a severe climate change and possible worn over ice to make matters worse, Finland is a frigid country that gets very cold in December according to Google AI Overview; The average temperature in Helsinki, Finland during winter is around -35.5°C. However, the daily high can sometimes rise above 0°C due to warm airflow.
I suspect the old adhesive was dried out and quickly deteriorated under freezing temperatures an the sole fell off, thankfully she was able to have the soles re-glued and was able to keep these rare collectible pair of boots that she loved so much.
Moral of this situation is that when purchasing vintage leather footwear one must be aware that a possible repair is in the future, high quality shoes hold their value because they are repairable, if Hermes sold leather goods that could not be repaired the allure of owning the brand would discourage most people from purchasing.
In over 20 years of selling vintage and hundreds of shoes sold, this is the only pair where the soles fell-off, so this is not a common occurrence.
Speaking of holding value, these same Zodiac boots are now selling for over $800.00 (If you can find them) worth more than triple the price my customer paid in 2020.