I've lost my sole, man!

I've mentioned before that I like Kenneth Cole clothing. OK, I'm obsessed with his line, shoes, especially. I have my favorite pair. Sqaure, blunt toe, black slip ons with a strap and buckle across the arch. They need polished. But, other than that they're in great shape...or so I thought.
For the past few weeks, when wearing my favorite black KC shoes, I kept hearing a 'rattling' when I walked. The (decorative) buckles were not loose. I couldn't figure out what the hell was rattling when I walked.
Today, I took my shoes off in my office and looked at the heels. (These shoes have a thick rubber sole and heel.) The heels had little squares cut out of them, so they were not a solid piece of rubber. It turns out, the rest of the heel was not solid either. I have worn down my heels enough, that I have worn a crack/hole in them, and pebbles had worked their way into the cracks (of both shoes!) and were bouncing around in the little space, every time I walked, causing the rattling sound. With some work, I was able to get the pebbles out of the heels of my shoes. I'm not ready to part with the shoes, but I may have to reconsider wearing them when the snow starts to fall.