Adult rated Keds New Style Keds - my sole complaint

[Mule]

I've been keeping an eye on the latest Keds styles for women.

I am glad to see that they are coming out with many different styles. I think that this will keep them competitive in the market place. They finally admit that they've missed the boat as being known as an athletic shoe company.

I don't know if they can compete in the youth market. There is no accounting for taste in fashion and even less accounting when it comes to young adult women.

So where they have to compete is in the casual shoe market. It looks like they are going for the niche of what I would call business casual. Most of their new shoes seem to be appropirate for wear with skirts and dresses.

They offer more than shoes that can be worn only with jeans and shorts, although there is still plenty of choice there.

However, they have some of the most bizzare sole designs. It seems that a decade ago they deisgned a number of "user firendly" soles (if you know what I mean :icon_wink). Now nary a sole can be used for this purpose.

Gone is the simple crepe-rubber sole, and it has been replaced with molded type soles with ridges, swirls and suction cups. Even the rubber itself has been replaced in places with something that has the texture of cardboard.

It used to be that if you saw the blue label, you could count on a good sole. Nowadays even having the word "Champion" associated with it isn't assurance enough. :icon_cry:

 

[cooljoe]

Re: New Style Keds - my sole complaint

Agree with you totally MULE--my wife and I loved KEDS for years and I hate the new soles especially on the latest canvas andies that we bought--although the leather ones still have a nice smooth all rubber sole--I even called Keds about this and they said everything will be made in this terrible new material----if you have any pairs of bliss or embrace--they have a great thick rubber sole--this is the second big blow to my fetish-the first was when Converse stopped making All-stars in the US and also changed the rubber.

 

[consforever]

Re: New Style Keds - my sole complaint

Mule and Cooljoe,
Guys, I agree with you completly... The new sole on the champs are total shit..
And just a reminder to all you out there that they are like walking on grease on any surface thats wet and even near smooth... That cardboard stuff is deadly... Mule, Keds didn't miss the boat, mate they never got in the taxi to get to the whalf... I brought a pair of new champs for the wife off 'the bay' and I'm not even going to give them to her because of the new soles.. More fool me for not asking for more pics... Compared to the old rice bubble soles that I walk in the new sole is hard, realy stiff and un-bending.. Ya fucked up big time Keds... Also note (my pic) that they come wrapped in crappy enviroment UN-friendly plastic... Not tissue paper... Love your designs though... Bring back the Skimmers...:icon_mad: :icon_mad: :icon_mad:
Walk softly people...

 

[whitekedschamps]

Re: New Style Keds - my sole complaint

I agree with all three of you. The new sole design and construction is not very safe. On any wet surface, these shoes are more like skates because of the compound used in the new sole construction. The ’07 champs seem to have different dimensions to them also. The part between the heel and ball of your foot is really narrow now compared to the past generations of the champ (this is comparing with a size 13 extra wide size shoes as in the pics attached). I feel the 90’s champ had the widest. The new champ seems longer too, like ½ to 1 whole shoe size longer than past. And why did they shrink the blue label on the back of the heel, its like half the size of what it use to be?

 

[consforever]

Re: New Style Keds - my sole complaint

Guys, No good whinging and wineing here... I'm going to send them an E-mail right now telling them why and what I think of them changing the Champions soles... They should go back to the first of the rice "bubble soles".. That's what I call them anyway... Please correct me if I'm wrong... :icon_mad: :icon_mad:

Walk softly people..

 

[Mule]

Re: New Style Keds - my sole complaint

Whoa. I didn't expect this to be such a hot topic!

The "rice bubbles" are what they call crepe rubber. Actually, that was one improvement Keds did make in my opinion when they went to the disasterously designed "rear flat tire" design a couple or years ago.

The crepe rubber soles on Keds of the 60's and 80's were really great, but you couldn't use them right out of the box. They had to be worn a while to wear off some of the roughness.

The later-day models came out the box with less roughness.

With Keds experimenting with all these wierd soles, I am glad I've "retired."

I can understand why Keds is playing with something other than rubber for the soles. There is probably an economic reason for it. Although this does not explain why of all the designs, none of them is 100% of this new material. All of them have at least some basic rubber in them.

I don't understand why each style of shoe has to have a different kind of sole design. I would think that tooling up for multiple types of soles would be more expensive than using one design over the entire line.

It's not like women look at the soles of the shoes to decide whether to buy them. Women buy shoes based on how they look on their feet. They don't see the soles when they wear them, so the soles could be the plainest or most hideous design, and it would not be a factor.

Consforever and WhiteKedsChamps thanks for the "comparative anatomy" lesson on Keds.

 

[consforever]

Re: New Style Keds - my sole complaint

A pic of the sole of my great keds champs... This is what I call a rice bubble sole..??.. People, please correct me if I'm wrong.. :icon_ques :icon_ques

Walk softly people..

 

[Mule]

Re: New Style Keds - my sole complaint

Yes, these are crepe rubber soles. The size and height of the bumps may vary, but soles of this type are called crepe rubber.

Back in the day when Sears had their own sneakers (Remember "Jeepers.") thay had small, sharp bumps that they advertized as "pebble grain."

I am going to take a guess as to how and why crepe rubber soles evolved, and why they were so prevalent in sneaker design.

I am guessing that crepe rubber is made by sending as sheet of rubber through a set of rollers to regualte its thickness. As the hot rubber comes out of the back end of the roller, some of it sticks to the roller leaving peaks. These peaks are flattened out by gravity as the rubber cools.

The composition of the rubber and the temperature probably determines the size and shape of the bumps.

It's a fast and cheap process.

For other soles with fancy designs, the rubber needs to be molded -- a more time consuming and costlier process.

Also a crepe rubber sheet is "fungible" -- any part of it is as good as another when it comes to making soles, so you can stamp out soles of any size using an overlapping pattern to minimize waste. I know that Keds soles are not totally homogeneous in that the sole is different at the heel. Maybe there is another process that does heels or the sheet is produced this way (Although this would cut down on the ability to stamp out overalpping shapes.)

Molded soles have a very specific design. For example a concentric circle pattern might have to be just behind the big toe. This means separate production runs for different sizes and a different production run for left and right shoes.

Furthermore, the sole might not even be made from a single casting. Soles with multiple color rubbers or with changes in materials (such as the newer Keds) may take several steps to build the sole -- an even more expensive process.

I can see going through all this trouble for an athletic shoe where the design has to take into account the floor surface on which the shoe is intended to be used, the pressure points caused by the way the sport is played, and the needs of the foot.

However, we all agree that Keds are not athletic shoes. Women don't buy them for that purpose.

So, if all you want to do is look good, why are you spending so much money on a part of the shoe that isn't seen. The typical woman is going to get as much wear out of a crepe rubber sole as she would a fancy sole. It is more likely that the shoe will go out of style or that the uppers will get worn out than the sole giving out over the life of the shoe.

Oh well, I'm not in the sneaker business, so what do I know?:icon_bigg

 

[consforever]

Re: New Style Keds - my sole complaint

Mornin Mule, Thanks for clueing me up... I had no idea makeing a sole was that involved... If this is the case makeing the "old' pebble sole would still be more cost effective than that crappy cardboard like stuff they are putting on now... The more processing you do the more expensive it becomes... Correct..??.. Any way I sent them an E-mai and havn't heard anything back yet... The old Champs are still my best walking kicks... :icon_chee

 

[Mule]

Re: New Style Keds - my sole complaint

Please don't get me wrong. I'm not saying I actually know how soles are made. But I am an engineer, and did some reverse-engineering on the end product.

What I presented is one way of getting to the end product, but may not be how it's actually done.

It doesn't make sense to me that Keds would go out of their way to use a more expensive process to make their soles if it didn't matter.

Apparently their marketing department thinks that a high-tech looking soles does matter.

"Goddammit Jim, I'm an engineer not a marketeer!"