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Look closely on the close-up; the red shoe would appear to be plastic (the "grain" is too uniform)! If you own a pair that you presume to be leather, try to find a composition label on the inside of the shoe. If it doesn't say what it is made out of, like most interior labels do, that is because some of the shoes are going to be leather, some vinyl and some a mix. If you happen to order online and get a box that hasn't been sitting on a retail shelf, the tale-tale indicator will be a small sticker with a bar code and an even tinier print that says "manmade upper".
I have no idea why Reebok is doing this but recently I found their classic leather shoe lines in local stores that were all over the map in terms of materials. One shoebox of Classic "Leather" Princess Aerobic shoes even had a plastic shoe that was paired alongside the leather! Genuine "garment leather" dimples, crinkles and smells like a leather "skin" whereas the simulated variety has a strong odor of plastic. On similar styles as the Princess or "Ice Pack" pictured above, the "leather" shoes that are supposed to have soft toe-boxes tend to look slightly irregular or imperfect due to the natural leather characteristics (you may also see some crinkling or wavy appearance on the side). The vinyl versions, by contrast, always look 100 percent smooth and lay flat. You can scratch or tap on the toe of the shoe and the leather will also sound different than the plastic. It's not that Reebok can't make a plastic shoe but they have a legal obligation (Federal Trade Commission) "disclosure of composition" that they're not meeting when they substitute out materials at random without changing the style ID number, the web descriptions or the price to reflect those design changes. Buyer beware!
I'm here to pass along news that the Reebok classic line (non-special edition) that Reebok has been selling for decades are no longer constructed of leather despite advertising claims to the contrary. To be more precise, it's hit or miss in the stores and in ordering online as to what you will get and how it's made. I personally ordered a pair described and also remembered from "back in the day" as leather only to find a sticker, not a permanent label, that said in very tiny print above a bar code "manmade upper".
In looking, one store was selling this same shoe/style in all leather and another department store in the same chain was literally selling boxes that consisted of one vinyl shoe with a leather mate in the same shoebox! If I didn't know better I would think these were swap meet knockoffs!
Some Reebok classic "leather" shoes I inspected locally had vinyl side panels and heels paired to a leather toe box and other shoes, most of them actually, were entirely vinyl --- the unbreathable sort of manmade upper you don't want to wear for "athletic" purposes! I then tracked down the Federal Trade Commission website indicating that anything that can pass for leather but is not must be labeled "synthetic" or "simulated" or words to such effect. By now I'm hopping mad (and sad) so I begin to comb online reviews for Reebok classic leather shoes, at which point I find one individual who caught Reebok in December 2011 in the act of advertising these shoes falsely online, as I have, and was allegedly told in an email from Reebok corporate that NONE of these shoes are leather, rather "simulated leather"!
I don't know what the deal is but I do know that in all my years shoe shopping, selling shoes at one point and even working for a cobbler in college, I have NEVER seen even a no-name shoe company, let alone a NAME BRAND manufacturer, selling product without a proper sewn-in tag or printed in-shoe label that includes not merely the style number, size or country of origin but a notice of compensation! In looking at the pair of Reeboks I received in plastic on Reebok's own website and that of every other online retailer that offers the style, I found them consistently as of this date described as "leather". I then found it wasn't just the style I was shopping for but the entire line of formerly (traditionally) leather classic Reebok shoes, the ones men and women have been buying for years!
Reebok has the right to make vinyl shoes but I also have the right to know what I'm buying. I do not think it is appropriate for one customer to pay the same price for a plastic Reebok-branded classic shoe and another customer shopping for the same style obtains an original all-leather pair. (I myself managed to find one all-leather pair made in Cambodia. The Vietnamese-made shoes are not only off in sizing, running narrow in the "wide" width and strangely long lengthwise, but more and more buyers in recent years report having to buy a full size up from what they normally purchase, which tells me that Reebok HAS messed with a good thing and will probably pay for quality control problems in the form of declining sales! (Worse, reviewers are also reporting more than in the past that Reebok classic athletic shoes that formerly lasted years are not making the six-month mark before falling apart.)
Every single retail store I checked where classic Reeboks are sold had boxes with no materials information on the label. From what I saw, every single one of the boxes that had spent any time on the shelf had the tiny sticker missing disclosing what the heck the shopper gets for the money. And, of course, the sewn in tags say absolutely nothing about composition! I understand that Reebok was allegedly acquired by Adidas in 2005. I don't know why they're running the company into the ground or why Reebok's Indian executives earlier this summer, according to the Times of India, just got sacked for FRAUD but it seems to me that there is a "company culture" problem and somebody needs to come in and clean house. (It's a bad economy and every little thing counts to boost revenues, something Reebok seems to have forgotten.)
Listen up Reebok: Loyal Reebok customers don't need or want the company "fixing" styles of shoes that weren't broke! If you're going to sell cheaper, vinyl shoes get rid of the misleading references to "leather" on your web store --- false advertising is illegal, so too is violating FTC disclosure laws!
Shoppers: If you don't get a satisfactory response from Reebok, take it to the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC may be interested to know that Reebok is flagrantly disregarding the FTC reg: "GUIDES FOR SELECT LEATHER AND IMITATION LEATHER PRODUCTS". Pay particular note to 24.2 "Deception as to composition", subsection (a).
Reebok, you're on notice --- stop manufacturing inconsistent "Reebok" shoes that look, feel and fit like you're relying on counterfeiters!
This voter is sick of the same old Republican and Democrat made-for-TV presidential picks. When voted into office, such candidates perpetuate similar economic policies and foreign policy actions. They uniformly encroach on our liberties because technology has made it too easy to resist.
If you aren't in favor of Ron Paul the next most principled candidate we've seen in recent years is Ralph Nader. Such candidates have been derided for splitting the ticket. And yet, this isn't high school. We shouldn't be lining our votes up according to a prom king/queen "pretty face" criteria. Californians elected a governor with no relevant experience because we were enamored with celebrity. Result? Voters got exactly what we paid for --- a dearth of satisfactory results. Similarly, we’ve taken the nation’s most difficult job --- the presidency --- and offered it to relative neophytes. Have we learned our lesson yet?
If you have the wherewithal to recognize a public figure who won't flip flop his/her way through office, VOTE FOR THAT CANDIDATE!
The nation elected President Obama for "change" but we didn't get much to speak of. Standing for what you believe is incredibly difficult in the beltway. There are simply too many special interests who will court you and your vote for a campaign donation.
Until we reform the way campaigns are financed we will continue to obtain more of the same.
If you feel that Nader or Paul were too radical, think about the cost of hiring, again, some lesser-principled individual to sit in the Oval Office. With the check-and-balance that is the Congress, Senate and Judiciary, I believe that anyone who occupies the Oval Office faces an uphill battle to generate even modest change. That's why we need to start off by electing someone who is known for being more consistent in their views and votes to begin with! What may strike voters as a "radical over-correction" is not what it seems: We need someone who really has rock-solid principles in order to keep some semblance of those campaign promises upon entering office. If we don't start off with a candidate who offers real change, we will achieve none whatsoever. Brace yourself for more joblessness, more wars, more of the same deficit spending!
Voting for the media's most oft-repeated name has brought us to where we are today. When voters don't set their own agenda, the media sets the front-runners by proxy depending on the level of press coverage. The solution: 1) don't hire the same type of president and expect different results [the definition of insanity], 2) stop allowing the media to dictate your perception of who can win.
Liberal and conservative voters need to internalize the same message: THINK FOR YOURSELF.
Take back your power. Take back your vote. Take back our country.