burning like matchsticks in the face of the darkness

For the past howevermany years, I've been a fan of black faux Mary Janes with chunky heels. They so frequently have purposely visible stitching or are brown or in some other way fall victim to my pickiness, though. Ditto any other kind of shoe I like. When i find shoes I like I try to stock up because I keep having to shoeshop when mine are literally falling apart, but whether I pay $10 or $40 they seem to fall apart after a year. (I will never ever buy Steve Madden again because I once bought a $30-40 pair that fell apart within 2 months and I couldn't find anything on their website about returns or complaints or anything, so I just threw them out and vowed never to buy from them again.)