I have had three pairs of pricey Clarks shoes which, although carefully looked after and otherwise in excellent condtion, simply came apart at the junction between the leather upper and the synthetic sole.The failure is not of the thread used for stitching, it is a design-cum-material fault ; the part of the sole stitched to the upper ( i.e with holes through it) is simply not strong enough. Clarks must know this very well by now. One can only conclude that Clarks are content to sell shoes with a built-in fault, perhaps because it guarantees a relatively shorter life!! read full review »