I'm on my third pair of Laced, whatever suede they're made with is very strong. In fact i wish it was a bit less tough, because they'd be easy to sew back together & fix
The slim canvas strip stitching the panels together is what eventually rips & makes the side wall come loose. But even after this happens you can still wear them, as you can see the toe area wraps pretty far back (you could probably still skate them like this too)
Not a big fan of the new sole design though. The two with the classic sole are "Laced by Leo Romero", the newer sole comes with "The Romero Laced". Maybe this sole works nicely on other Emericas but I like the older sole, personally.