Hi,
My first pair of fencing shoes was the type made by France Lame but not sold under their name (they called them something like "Tisza"). They worked well for me, they wore quickly right at the beginning but then shoed no further signs of wear for another two years at which point they fell apart over the course of about 2-3 months. I then replaced them with the current France Lame shoes after being assured by the Santelli folk that they were much better than the Tiszas and should wear better (they were surprised that my Tiszas had lasted 2 years, apparently they had a rep for quick self-distruction that I wasn't aware of). I bought the new shoes in Austin last summer, by December they were unwearable, I'd come through the bottoms of BOTH shoes and nearly through the side. I now own a pair of the asymmetrix shoes from adidas and haven't noticed any problems with them.
I'd STRONGLY advise against getting the France Lame shoes, my experience shows that they just don't hold up.
Hope that helps prevent someone from making the same mistake I did.
-B
------------------
"Oh but you can't expect to wield supreme executive power just because some watery tart threw a sword at you!"
Linear Mode
