Children tend to outgrow shoes at an alarmingly high rate. For the child who can't keep a pair of shoes in their feet for more than a few short months, a discount shoe is typically the best value. Since a discount shoe will pretty much wear out under the use a child puts a shoe through in four to six months, they have not only grown out of the shoe, but they have worn them down in approximately the same amount of time.

However, beginning walkers need a high quality shoe with good support while they are attempting the arduous task of learning how to walk. A shoe that does not provide them with adequate support is likely to make the task more difficult.

Older children and teens are not quite as likely to outgrow a shoe nearly as quickly. However, their activity requires a stronger, better quality shoes and as they get older it becomes a better value to spend more money on a shoe that will last longer than to continuously replace shoes every few months. Early teens are the approximate age where the value shifts and a person is likely to get a lot more value out of a quality name brand shoe. While the initial cost may be more expensive, in inexpensive low quality shoe is going to wear out long before it will be outgrown.

An adult is more of a judgment call. Some adult wear one pair of shoes all the time, while others have twelve pairs that they slowly rotate through. What type of shoe turns out to be the better quality shoe depends on the activities the adult is bound to perform in those shoes as well as how many pairs of shoes the adult owns. If a person works in construction they are going to require a higher quality shoe than someone who sits behind a desk in an office. An active athletic adult is going to require something a bit higher quality than someone who is ore likely to watch television six nights per weeks.

The quality of the shoe for the best money is the shoe that will last the longest under the circumstances. A high quality name brand shoe will outlast a lower quality discount shoe, provided it isn't grown out of before having a chance to wear out.