I have several brooks that are thirty years old, and will probably last another ten years. All on older bikes, I did not buy all of them new. However, my newer brooks don't seem as though they will make it past the ten year mark. Thinner leather than any of my vintage saddles, my five year old flyer is already halfway run out on the threads, and it needs to be tightened every 500 miles or so. And I have had the leather fatigue and come apart at the nose on one of the first "pre softened" brooks bought years ago, it lasted about three years. And before any lectures on saddle care, almost every bike in my fleet runs leather, Ideal and Brooks. Its just the saddles I have purchased in the last ten years or so that have had issues.

Even so, I still find the flyer to be very comfortable for touring, and will use it till its dead.