A TikToker has been left disappointed after her Miu Miu purchase quite literally fell apart. The video, which was posted by user Taylor Smith (@taylorlenaa), amassed 41,800 views. She began the clip by holding up her Miu Mius to the camera. The bottom half of the soles had crumbled off.
She then explained how she saw these “beautiful shoes” that had never been worn on the Vestiaire Collective. It is an online marketplace for second-hand luxury goods.
“I thought I hit the lottery,” she added. “I was wrong.”
What happened?
The first red flag was that, for a month, the package was lost. It sat in a Walgreens the whole time, but they told Smith it wasn’t. Still, she was “super excited” about the shoes. After a month, Smith wore them for the first time. She drove to her grandmother’s nursing home and realized that, as she walked, she was leaving a “trail” of crumbled pieces of shoe. They had “completely disintegrated.”
Consequently, she reached out to Vestiaire, but claims the company told her that it couldn’t do anything because it had exceeded 48 hours from purchase. However, it told Smith that she was welcome to relist them.
“Does anyone want to buy these for 500 dollars?” Smith asked, still holding the shoes. “Do you think that I can re-list these?”
She then took the shoes to a cobbler, who confirmed it was dry rot and said it wasn’t worth fixing.
The TikToker disputed the purchase with her credit card company twice. The first time, they denied it on the basis of her apparently not contacting Vestiaire (even though she allegedly did). The second time, they disputed it because she accepted the terms and conditions, they can’t do anything.
Smith closed out the video with an important PSA: make sure you buy your Miu Mius in a place where you can check them before purchasing. She didn’t respond to The Mary Sue’s request for comment via TikTok comment and Instagram direct message. The Mary Sue reached out to the Vestiaire Collective by email.
@taylorlenaa learn from my mistakes ?
♬ original sound – taylor
What is dry rot?
The problem with Smith’s shoes is that they had dry rot on the soles.
According to Holy Thrift, this is because rubber, which is often found on the sole of vintage shoes, is vulnerable to oxidation: a process where, due to a lot of oxygen exposure, the chemical makeup of the rubber changes, making it dry and crumbly with less elasticity.
To avoid your vintage shoes from disintegrating, the site recommends storing shoes in cool, dry conditions, avoiding bright/direct sunlight, and storing them with acid-free tissue paper, among other things.
What did commenters think?
Some commenters were shocked by the price of the shoes, with one writing: “$500 for a non brand new shoe is crazy…”
“Unfortunately, all Miu Miu and Prada rubber soles from the 90s and 00’s have dry rot/cracking,” another claimed, while a third said: “Had never been worn is your first red flag.”
Meanwhile, a fourth agreed that “Vestiaire really does have the worst customer service.”
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