Quote Originally Posted by melissam View Post
Badgercat,

Thanks so much about the information about the Chaco's. I think they look mighty cool, and it's great to know that they work people to do heel lifts or orthotics. Did you get a set of Chaco's with lifts from the cobbler in the FAQ? If so, how long did it take between ordering them and receiving them?
Mine did come through David, the one listed in the FAQ. I don't remember exactly how long it took... I went back and forth with him over email and telephone a few times before deciding to go through with it. I want to say, though, that from the time I said "go," to the time I had them in hand, was about 10 days.

Quote Originally Posted by KnottedYet View Post
I got my Chacos lifted by my neighborhood shoe repair guy, cuz having Chaco do it was turning into a huge hassle. He crafted an amazing work of art, tapered and scored and curved, beautifully flexible and rockered.

Chaco makes great sandals. I'm kind of sad that they fired the folks in Paonia and now have everything made in China. Now I treasure my collection of Chacos made in the US. I have some that are over 10 years old and going strong!

There's no reason to assume that now their quality will go down at all, it's just kind of frustrating to see the pictures of Chaco "employees" on the website and in the catalogs, and know those pics are just propaganda now and all that is gone.

ETA: Chaco's repair service is fabulous, they've been great to me! Anything you've done to your Chacos, they can handle it.
I was so clueless about how common leg length discrepancies were, that I didn't realize you could have things like this done at local shops until my Chaco started to separate at the toe a little bit. I brought it in to be re-glued and the guy said he would have done the lift differently and better. David's work isn't perfect... I definitely wouldn't have minded having a little more rocker at the toe, for example (these are things that I just didn't know to ask about back then...), but for my first pair of professionally lifted shoes, I've definitely gotten a lot of miles and happiness out of them.

KnottedYet, can you still get resoles and such done on 'third-party' lifted Chacos just the same? I've been thinking about investing in another pair in a different style so I have something to wear when mine are wet from being washed.

At some point in my life, when my finances (and my taste in shoes) are more stable, I definitely want to have permanent lifts put into more of my shoes... it's just such a better way to walk/stand around than lifting one heel with the same lifts I've been switching in and out of shoes since I was in high school.

I guess I didn't realize that most of Chaco's manufacturing was done abroad these days...mine say "assembled in Colorado" on the tags, but it never occurred to me that that's not the same as "made in Colorado." A similar thing happened with Timbuk2 (messenger bags that I love for bike commuting), though it seems like they're still pretty committed to high quality products and good working conditions, I like the idea of my stuff not having to be transported across the globe--carbon footprint and all that.