Firstly, I'm intentionally staying anonymous in this post. I have another user name here and I don't want to get too involved with all of this on that name, nor do I want to be "used as an example" in the large group I'm involved with dealing with this particular shoe company. I have friends in that group and do not want to cause a ruckus.
However, I felt the need to post here mainly to just bring to light the issues I'm having and let other people know my experiences in hopes that they avoid falling into the same trap I did.
Earlier this year, I purchased a few pairs of SKORA shoes. The specific models were the Fit, Core, and Tempo. I'm a barefoot runner coming from Vibrams and these shoes looked to be a great fit for me. I was swayed and convinced by their "internet advertising" they use in the form of their sponsored team. I mean, people were saying that they have shoes that last for over 1000 miles, sometimes even 1500 miles. What is there to lose?
Because their core model seemed to resemble my Vibrams the best they were the shoes I chose to run in off the bat. I loved them. Everything went well. That was until about 150 miles or so in, when my left ankle began to hurt. Suspecting a ton of different things, I checked the shoes. The sole on the bottom/inside of the left shoe had worn down to almost nothing - while the rest of the shoe looked fine with no wear at all. The right shoe had no wear at all either. When I contacted customer service, I ended up speaking to someone who told me my form wasn't correct and that it caused premature wearing on the shoes. It wouldn't be covered by warranty, despite it being an obvious defect (the sole on the inside of the back half of the left shoe was worn nearly paper thing while the rest of the pair of shoes had no wear).
Not happy, but needing a new pair of shoes, I moved on to the tempo and figured that a bit of cushioning might be good for me anyway (again, swayed by their online advertising in their facebook group "Skora Insiders"). I was wrong. At about 50 miles of running, I determined that the shoes were not for me and no amount of trying to make them work would change that. Again, these shoes saw about 50 miles of running on them, and I wore them occasionally to work. I'm a nurse and stand all day so I figured they couldn't hurt. Shortly after deciding that they were not a good match for me, I noticed that three of the lugs on my right shoe had fallen off and that two on the left had fallen off. If you haven't seen the sole of the shoe, the center of the bottom of the tread pattern has lugs on them. Eight on each shoe, I believe. Now, I was through with the shoe completely at this point but figured it would be worth a shot to get my money back or a refund of some kind since, one again, I had an obviously defective shoe.
This time, Skora's customer service took forever to get back with me. For every two emails I sent them, I would get one in reply and most of the time it was a "brush off email" that made me feel like they hoped the problem would just go away. I ended up finally speaking to someone and they made several suggestions. Everything from gluing the lugs back onto the shoe with super glue (I didn't even have the lugs), just living with it because "it doesn't make much of a difference", to blaming my form that they fell off, to telling me that walking around on my shoes at work causes more stress and damage to them than when I run in them. Long story short, no warranty and I'm out $140 from purchasing these shoes and then I was brushed off.
So buyer beware. The quality of these shoes is not what is advertised through their groups and online postings and when you reach out to them with an issue - their customer service will do everything in its power to not accommodate you in any way.