Alternatives to FastDateFormat for efficient date parsing?

Question

Well aware of performance and thread issues with SimpleDateFormat, I decided to go with FastDateFormat, until I realized that FastDateFormat

Answer 1

Do you really need to parse dates that quickly? Have you tested SimpleDateFormat and found it too slow for your needs?

Note, there are a variety of ways to cache slow-to-construct, non-thread-safe class instances (e.g. ThreadLocal, pools).