Unlike in games, where improved quality is mostly 'better at everything', real-world quality improvements often involve tradeoffs that will make the item
worse at specific tasks. Modern shoes have fairly limited lifespans in large part because:
- We like lightweight shoes. Reducing weight reduces the durability of whatever component has its weight reduced (of course, if that component normally lasts longer than the rest of the shoe, this is harmless. This tends to result in shoes where everything fails at about the same time, if used in the expected manner).
- We like shoes with padding. Padding has an inherently limited lifespan; the more energy the padding absorbs, the shorter its lifespan.
- We like shoes that grip surfaces well. That means relatively soft soles, and reduces the lifespan of the sole.
If you want long lasting shoes, you sacrifice one or more of those things. Hiking boots usually have harder soles and worse grips than court shoes. Armored shoes are likely to sacrifice quite a lot of weight and grip quality, and as a result probably last a quite long time (though you may have to replace insoles regularly).