Passive

Most of my observations about modern male footwear concern shoes that have probably been actively chosen. However, there are many men out there who don't really chose their shoes, they simply allow them to happen. As a child I was like this: knowing I wouldn't be allowed the shoes I wanted (which to be fair to my mum were generally overpriced trainers), I would settle on the first pair of shoes that were not ugly with a firm intention to do serious damage to them at the earliest opportunity. I was only weened off this abusive relationship by my first pair of DMs (incidentally the first pair of shoes I bought for myself), which probably had some form of accelerated wear applied to them initially, but subsequently required much care and attention to preserve their hard-worn appearance. Perhaps some men just accept their ugly shoes and then form a sort of grudgingly co-dependent relationship, a sort of addiction that carries on into adulthood. This may explain why even grownup men appear reluctant to polish their ugly shoes.
There are some men however, who appear either blissfully ignorant of their nonchant* for bad footwear or fully accepting of it. Thus they drift into middle age compulsively buying and caring for shoes that are not the most ugly, but still pretty duff.
I snapped these prime examples just the other day. They are, in many ways an inoffensive pair of shoes, but that doesn't stop them being woefully ugly. The snub-nose, the nasty welded-on rubber sole and the casual lack of attention to detail that screams 'mass produced' all add up to making them an affront decent shoemaking. I guess, in their defence, they were probably cheap, but cheap shoes are a false economy. Well made, well maintained shoes last a dog's age. Fact.
I guess many people who wear shoes like these would say that they're not bothered that they don't look very nice, "I'm not at a fashion parade," they might say, or they may declare that the convenience of buying and owning one cheap pair of shoes at a time outweighs the cost implications. Having shown such little interest in personal appearance and sustainability, I wonder what else these people don't care about. Yes I am saying that a lack of care about your footwear may indicate that you have a generally sloppy and reprehensible approach to life, the planet and your fellow human beings. I'm saying shape up bad shoe people, the rest of us are carrying you no further.

*Nonchant - a subverted penchant; a persistent preference arrived at through a concerted lack of active decision making.