What in the WORLD?

I have written a couple of blog posts in the past on the annoyance of deteriorating shoes around our house.  I have been amazed at the speed at which this phenomenon occurs.  It has been almost exactly 2 months since I last replaced the boys' footwear, and this week Seth came home from school looking like this:

Forget the deterioration rate, I just want to know how the tops come detached from the bottoms.  Seriously, what is that?  How on earth does this even happen?  I'm just incredulous, stunned, and at a loss for words. 

Two days later (yesterday, in fact) I peek at Abram's feet only to discover this:

The SAME thing has happened within days of each other.  I'm just floored.  Abram told me the janitor suggested using duct tape to help them hold out a little longer.  Really?  Sam was just as dumbfounded as I and asked the boys, "what do you guys do?"  Seth retorted that "shoes are weak sauce for boys like us."  Apparently so.  And I'll have you know I was frantically looking for duct tape this morning to hold the boy over until we can replace his shoes tonight.