95 of 100 people found this review helpful. It used to be a good shoe, but now worthless By Donald Leighty I've worn New Balance shoes for walking from the late 80's or 90. That lasted for years. Last fall I bought a new pair that began to crumble in a few months (they do not have to take daily walks for almost a year, this occurred simply by walking the dog and pushing a lawn mower in the yard). Another couple did the same, so I started hassling NB a couple of weeks ago. He said that the shoes looked like they had a bad sunburn, with a thin, white elastic peeling and shedding of the bottom of foam. Completely gone from the tip and most of the sides. Where is the leather?

After receiving several contradictory versions of the girls who answer the phone (and sending a couple of MX608s back to his lab for a "review"), which finally received the following explanation from someone above:

"Thank you for contacting support new consumers balance!

The tip, vamp, heel and entire neighborhoods are leather MX608. It is called split leather because it is "separated" from the top layer, called the full grain. The 2-3 layers can be split away from the split leather is called. The fracture surface is treated with a polyurethane coating and painting. The divisions are real leather.

The fender area of the shoe is a synthetic material. This is the area along the side directly above the midsole. If this area of the shoe is abrasive, so what we're seeing could be the support of the synthetic material is made of compressed fibers.

Furthermore, the shoes are very few facts top grain or full grain leather more. It's too expensive. All 608s are made this way, so there should be no difference between the different pairs. "

This gave me enough information to start digging into the reality of "leather upper" (or "synthetic patent leather" as it is known). This is from Wikipedia:

"Synthetic patent leather (also known as bycast leather, suede or leather PU) is a leather exterior with a polyurethane coating applied to the surface in relief then. Bycast was originally made for the shoe industry and recently was adopted by the furniture industry. The resulting product is cheaper than top grain leather and has a consistent texture and artificial is easier to clean and maintain.

The use of the term "leather" on this bicast treatment is considered a misinterpretation and therefore is not allowed in the United Kingdom and New Zealand. Furniture made of synthetic patent leather exhibits any characteristics associated with genuine leather, it will develop a patina or flexibility or otherwise "improve with age." With the constant use of the polyurethane layer cracking and splitting without your support.

Modern technology allows a maximum of 3 or 4 horizontal layers being taken from the skin. The leather used on the back of synthetic patent leather is a thin, otherwise worthless, the layer that remains after a better quality of the layers have been removed to the traditional leather work and contributes nothing to the appearance of the final product . "

Nice.

That is to Wikipedia, but the findings are consistent with those of the fur and professionals. New Balance has changed from a real-resistant leather upper in a bicast "leather", the use of several countries have already ruled out deliberately misleading.