>>2345818The majority of modern boots are either lightweight and/or cushy using a glued outsole (such as mini mil or vivobarefoot) or direct attach using a foam (redback, Salomon, mongrel, sievi, m77, german para boots, most running shoe companies)
Glued soles can delaminate, especially under extreme heat delaminating the glue. The remedy is typically to have shoe glue or another bond to touch up any peeling spots. Rubber Rands are also glued on like with lowas and some oily leather conditioners will make the adhesive lose its bond hence why lowa says to use a water based conditioner and not an oil or no warranty.
Direct attach uses two types of foams for a midsole - either Eva or Polyurethane PU foam. Eva is cushier and lighter but the rebound tends to flatten at 500 miles hence why people tend to recommend that point to buy new runners. This is typically used on your Nikes etcetera.
PU tends to be found on more hiking boots as a midsole as it is a longer lasting midsole foam. I've seen it last to about ten years regularly and there are places that can resole some such as Dave page in Seattle or my shoeman in Salem OR. However polyurethane will have hydrolysis if you don't use it regularly and store it for long periods of time. A lot of people buy PU rainboots for example and wear them three times a year and find the foam crumbling.
You can read a million cases for this if you goto
productreviews.au and look up Redback, Mongrel, Rossi, Blundstone as the Australian PU companies as it's almost always the same story.
I see one other common case of hydrolysis due to poor distribution because the manufacturer makes 100 models with 10 sizes each making for 1,000 combinations sent to 100 distributors and many of those are bound to sit on shelves rotting for years. So when you take the boots to hike on a 50 mile trail and the sole crumbles after 2 miles you are pissed and possibly screwed.
The remedy is the manufacturer making less models or fast distribution network
