I had Gatorskins with sidewalls that did basically the same. There's something about that mesh-type sidewall material that wants to delaminate where it's joined IMO. I went with Lifeline tires (a CRC house brand) after that and had a horrendous sidewall failure on my way to work, managing to limp in to the office after depleting my puncture repair kit and using my spare tube. Not the same defect--the Lifeline's threads had pulled out of the bead en-masse in one spot--but the lack of quality and need for reliability in commuting (as well as the only available 700x32c tire) led me to a tire that I once swore I'd never ride again. The Schwalbe Marathon. It's a slippery slope to turning your bike into a tractor once you have a failure or two, man, keep the faith.