Open Letter To Rockport

Dear Rockport,

I recently bought a pair of Rockport shoes. Something similar to this (Rockport Tewksbury Mens), I have attached at actual photo of the shoes in question. Within a few days of using these shoes the ‘dynamic suspension’ in the right shoe gave out and when I put my heel down it would force all the air into a bubble under the ball of my foot. I have since taken the shoe to the original place of purchase and asked them to contact you and arrange for a replacement insole, they were notified by you (Rockport) that this shoe is no longer made, that you will not replace the insole and that they should reimburse me my money and pick another shoe. This makes me worried, if you discontinue a shoe you will no longer do any work on it, what happens when my stitching gives out a couple years down the road, or I wear out the soles, shouldn’t I be able to get the shoe repaired?

I purchased from your company because I was told Rockport creates a quality product and it would be well worth the extra money.

It took me 2 minutes to find a comparable shoe on your site, I don’t want that shoe, I picked out the shoes I bought because I like those ones. Now both of these shoes use ‘dynamic suspension’, wouldn’t it be possible to take the insoles used in the linked shoe (Rockport Tewksbury Mens) an slap em in my shoe? I am also worried about what this says about your company, are you just going to chuck the perfectly fine shoes I had into the garbage?

Cheers, Hez

Update

So it turns out Rockport is just another mega-shoe corporation forcing made in China shoes which they will not repair or stand behind, oh sure they’ll throw my shoes in the landfill and give me another pair, but I don’t think thats the type of business practices we should be encouraging. What ever happened to good old fashioned pride in craftsmanship, all I know is I won’t be taking them up on their offer of another pair of shoes from them I will be returning to the local shoe makers and getting a quality product. Thank god people like Dayton Boots and Fluevog Shoes still exist.

Their response:

Dear Mr. Ronningen,

Thank you for contacting The Rockport Company. We are sorry to hear that you were experiencing difficulties with your Rockport shoes. The Rockport Company stands 100% behind the quality of workmanship and materials used in its products. If merchandise is found to be defective, we will offer an exchange. When our technicians find a Rockport shoe defective we offer to replace the shoe; we do not repair the shoe.

Should you have any further questions or comments, we recommend contacting our representative in Canada to assist with your inquiry. Information to contact our Canadian representative is listed below: