Left: Genuine leather Giovanni and Gimatzzi men dress shoes. Right: Some sneakers worn by men.

When 15-year-old high school student Orane visited his father over the last summer holidays, he left with two pairs of school shoes. Only one term later he has had to put in a request for more, although he said he had told his father not to buy any cheap footwear.

"Them no las' at all," Orane said, this despite him alternating them as much as possible. This time around he thinks he is in better shape with the two pairs he has received, but will be taking the same approach of rotating the shoes so that one does not get worn down too quickly.

"When you wear one straight, it lean up fast," he said. Shoe repair specialist Neville, who works on the upper section of Red Hills Road, St. Andrew, recommends just this strategy to extend the life of shoes.

"Never you have one shoes that you wear straight. But at the same time, you don't need as much so that you have some you never wear at all," he said.

And it more than a matter of wear and tear. "When you have one shoes that you wear straight, you don't put it down to clean up and take care of. Even with two, plenty people don't do that, but dirt affect the material and the stitching and so on," he said.

This applies to not only shoes but also sneakers. "Sneakers is a thing I don't get to fix, but it beat me why a man would spend $5,000 or even more on what him say is a name brand sneakers and don't wash it. It must mash up because the threading eat away and the uppers peel away even faster than shoes," Neville said.

"Shoes must wash and take care of, just like clothes. And them must get a break too," he said.