One little item from the official Army history of the 208th Engineer Combat Battalion struck me.
They sent 250 pairs of boots to a depot to be repaired.
Today they would throw them away.
True. Because the boots are made with the heels and soles in one piece and attached to the boot as such. Check out the shoes you wear and try to find a “shoe repair shop” that can repair them. (Clue: The goode olde shoe repair shop no longer exists!)
A huge reason for that is that sometime around the 1970's-1980's manufacturing around the world figured out that if you build something to be replaced rather than be repaired, you can build it faster and cheaper. It's a different way of handling manufacturing and logistics entirely. I'm not sure if it's truly better or worse, but is why there aren't any TV repair shops any more.