2009 Sep 28: Nice Boots!

So the work challenge is over, and it's back to trying to pass for normal. In the process of writing about my shoes, I've realized I have a lot more to say. I barely scratched the surface with those 18 posts because as casual as casual may get, I own a panoply of shoes and boots that are simply inappropriate for work. Well, unless your job is SWAT team member, or special forces. Otherwise, the boots pictured here are pretty much only appropriate for gay bars on the wrong side of town that make you stop in your tracks until your eyes can adjust to the dim light. Places too dark to see what's happening in the corners. Places where you want vibram outsoles and thick buffalo-hide between what's crawling around on the floor, and also, to protect you from germs. Places your mom, no matter how cool she is with you being gay, definitely wouldn't want you frequenting. Places that I would know absolutely nothing about...

For the record, I don't own the boots pictured here, I swiped it from a website picture of a particular pair of boots that I have been lusting after for gosh, probably ten years. It's the price that's prohibitive, I simply can't justify the cost, because I am not, in fact, a SWAT team member and 200 smackers is a lot of money for boots that won't get much use (alas...)

Which brings me tolast night.

Last night I was attending a life drawing open studio I try to make regularly, but have been missing for a lot of reasons, some lamer than others. At the end of the session, I was messing with my paper out in the lobby, cursing myself for having brought the wrong stuff, thinking I had the good watercolor paper but instead had grabbed the colored drawing paper, and in my self-chastising interlude I missed the model setting up his pose for the last half-hour session. Upon re-entering the studio, my dick takes one look at the model and announces "NICE boots!" I really do wish it'd check with my brain for social appropriateness before speaking, although I suppose the alternative, raising its hand for permission, might have been even more embarrassing.

2009 Sep 09: Dress Boots

Italian leather boots so wonderful they attract a heavenly halo of light. With a navy blue pin-stripe suit, ivory-topped mahogany walking stick, and bowler derby I shall be all set for a night on the town.

2009 Sep 07: I am my father's child

It's sad, but true. I've become my father. Normally, I wouldn't wear these tired, scuffed old shoes to work because, well, they're tired, scuffed, and old. I bought them about 10 years when I changed jobs. They're size 8m Nunn Bush from some discount place or other. DSW maybe? I'm surprised they still fit and don't pinch. Nowadays I'm wearing an 8.5 or more often a 9. These shoes were my concession to going out in the "real world" and needing a pair of ordinary looking oxfords for my new consulting gig. But, in the spirit of my self-imposed challenge to wear a different pair of shoes every day for as long as I can maintain it, these don't look half as bad as one of my co-worker's shoes, that are torn, cracked, peeling nasty black vinyl lace up shoes from I dunno, WalMart? Target? PayLess?

So one might well ask, why do I still have these, given that I don't have a problem with donating my old stuff to the St. Vincent de Paul or other local charities like the State Hospital? Well for one they're kind of too beat up to want to give to some poor person, but more importantly, they're pretty good shoes, leather uppers, soft rubber sole, very comfortable, so I use them when I'm working in the garage. And that's when I hear my father, when I say: "there's nothing wrong with these shoes! Why get rid of usable shoes just because they're a little worn? You can still work in the yard in them." I've caught myself doing that with old work chinos lately. Maybe they got an ink stain in the pocket where I keep my pen, maybe they just got a little too worn. Perfectly good for painting in!

There is also the sentimental aspect of clothing, shoes in particular. I don't merely like clothes, I love them; they're old friends to which memories are attached. I ought to frame them and start a museum, honestly. I still have this favorite t-shirt from 8th grade that I wore every day it was clean, 2-3 times a week. It reminds me of who I was and what it was like to be me, back then. It also reminds me of how small I was, 5'4" and all of 110 lbs. Decent size for a 13 year old who isn't done growing, but less than half my weight nowadays. I can't remember fitting in that body let alone the clothes that went over it. But I remember that t-shirt and how much I loved it. I couldn't tell you what precisely was so appealing about that shirt, perhaps just its ordinariness. It was the only thing that remotely resembled what other kids were wearing to school in 1973 that my mother would let me leave the house in. But that's another story for another day and too much beer.

At any rate, these shoes aren't held together with duct tape, so I guess I can rest easy knowing I'm not just like my father. No sirree, if spring clamps and Elmer's plastic glue don't work, it's straight to the trash bin. I'm livin' large, I'm a wildly extravagant spendthrift, don't stop me now baby!

2009 Aug 05: Saturday shoes

I don't normally post on Saturdays, it's outside the original mission statement of this blog, but since I mentioned these in the LL Dorkmo entry, I thought they ought to get their due.

These are my original GBX pull-on shoes; you know, I don't even know what we're supposed to call these things? They're not "loafers" although they don't have laces. They sometimes call them "mocassins" but that's a pretty liberal interpretation of the semantics of that word. If "comfy, not appropriate for work unless you work around the house" is what you mean by "moccassin" I suppose you could get away with that but really. Pocahontas never had injection molded soles, gimme a break. While these shoes look like crap, they're very comfortable, and have a great sole that doesn't slip. I recently glued the tread back on with some Elmer's flexible plastic glue, and it's holding up great so far. It's a funny thing about shoes. I love new shoes, I love all kinds of shoes, but I also fall in love with particular pairs of shoes that have served me well.

Many years ago (more than 20, that's how long ago) an Indian friend of mine was blabbing on about how wasteful Americans are, how we're a disposable culture, toss everything out when it breaks, rather than fix it. To which I replied, "what about our sneakers?". That stopped her in her tracks. She thought for a minute and said, "That's not even natural, that's like a love affair. Americans won't even throw out decrepit sneakers with holes in them that are falling off their feet and held together with duct tape."

Hah!

And speaking of not wasting usable clothes, please pay no attention to the mis-matched socks. It's Saturday, clothes don't have to match on Saturday's, that's the rule. Saturday is leftover day, when you make lunch from the odds and ends from the week's dinner leftovers, and I've naturally extended that to clothing as well. I mean, you wouldn't want to waste your good clothes that you could wear to work just vacuuming and tidying up and doing laundry, would you? And after all, these two socks are the same kind of sock, my favorite online retailer, http://sockdreams.com, their own brand of "slouch sock" made in a wild array of colors. They're kind of too small these days, because, shh, don't tell anyone, but I'm cross dressing, they're actually sized for women. At any rate, why waste two perfectly good socks just because their mates went on a walkabout? Apparently, I mortified my partner this morning by going to a local favorite restaurant for brunch in these socks. So I'll wear long pants next time. I suppose we probably wouldn't be together if he'd known me when I was pursuing my "See if I can embarrass my friends with my appearance" personal challenge.

Hey, everyone needs a hobby. And in this town, didn't used to be you could get thrown out of a restaurant for how you were dressed. But it was so much fun to try.

2009 Sep 03: LL Dorkmos

I took this picture on July 23, before I started this blog, but these are what I have on today. So I suppose I've failed in my shoesaday quest, and alas, they'll never make a movie about my shoe fetish, and Fluevog will never have an opportunity to publicly say he hates my blog.

These shoes are nearly brand new and if they weren't so damn comfy I would have returned them, because shoes like this belong only on people who say things like "a-yup" and "woo doggies! that's a kick in the carbuncle!" and are called things like "Papaw" or "Grampops" by their younguns' younguns. They're LL Bean Suede Comfort Mocs, men's size 8.5 wide, and as wide shoes go, they are very narrow. They fit like a glove and are so damn comfy it makes me want to cry. Maybe that's my next career, making comfortable shoes for old fat guys with bad backs and a keen sense of style.

I bought these to replace my original GBX suede slip-ons, which at the time were considered weird and ugly, and yet two years later every nimrod and their cousin, the same nimrods and cousins who called my shoes ugly, were wearing knock-offs of this very style. Turns out a little Elmer's plastic glue and some heavy duty spring clamps was all I really needed to fix those old shoes right up, it was just the treads were coming unglued after 10 years of hard use. They're once again good enough to wear while working in the garage and falling off of step-stools, comfortable enough for trawling around town on a Saturday, yet cruddy enough to not have to worry about spilling paint on. These replacements were meant to replace those venerable old kicks, but of course, being new and all, and even though I find them hideous, I don't want to actually spill paint on them just yet. Plus, they're great for strolling unperturbed through airport security, and I blend right in at the Luby's early bird special. Oh, and did I mention that they caress my feet, molding to my sole, every step an epiphany of pure bliss?

So.

Are these better or worse then my El Dorkmo's, the New Balance sneakers I blogged about?

2009 Sep 02: shoes every now and then

So, I took a couple days off the end of last week, and Monday was supposed to be the last day of our "relaxed dress" extravaganza at work, but it's been extended until the 14th of September, so I have more time to explore my collection.

This latest extension of "relaxed dress" makes me wonder if the powers high up are not contemplating permanently relaxing the dress code here. Face it, most of us grind at a desk all day and never ever meet the public. For me, that would be a mixed blessing. I own a lot of clothes (and shoes) I won't need to wear ever again unless I have to present before some governing body and that's not likely. On the other hand, I don't own a lot of clothes that actually fit anymore, and not needing to buy new dress pants would save me hundreds of dollars, especially if you count in the dry-cleaning costs, which I must, because I'm fussy. If you're going to do it, do it right. I don't iron, and dress pants look like crap after two passes through the washer, unless you buy cheap double-knit polyester from K-mart, in which case they look like crap before you put them in the washer. On the other hand, they don't look any worse after you wash them... but that's not a win in my opinion.

Don't get me wrong, I snub my nose at no-one who shops at these places for honest economic reasons. (Although I will add as an aside, my extremely "frugal" sister won't shop at WalMart because she finds their business practices unethical and reprehensible, and she falls quite far to the right of middle, no less.) That's the real kicker about civil service, they pay you crap AND demand that you dress formally, which for people with families, means you are forced to shop at K-Mart for you dresses, ties, dress shirts, shoes, if you intend to both feed and clothe your family. Contrary to the ideas of the people who made these rules, your outfit doesn't say "white collar professional" but instead screams "underpaid government worker".

But I digress.

Back to the shoes thing, these are my favorite "every day" boots. Some off-brand I found really cheap on ebay, the style really grabbed me, kind of old-timey, reminiscent of depression-era working class shoes. I could be an extra in "O Brother Where Art Thou?" with these babies on my pups. I replaced the leather insoles with some good quality Dr. Scholl's and they're very comfy. I love the height, they're high enough to be boots and give a little ankle support, but low enough they don't attack my achilles tendon. As stiff as they are, they don't rub anywhere and my feet don't hurt after a day of stomping around. They're truly odd boots though, they have leather outsoles with rubber treads glued on. You don't find real leather soles much anymore, especially not on cheap boots. And trust me, they are cheap boots, the leather is clearly from the rear end of some poor expired buffalo in some depressed part of the world, my guess would be former soviet union or South Asia somewhere. But they're just so darn stylish, who cares if they're not heirloom quality? Nothing is forever.

2009 Aug 26: Kelly Hiking Boots

Are these not the most amazing hiking boots you've ever seen in your life and don't you wish you had a pair? Apparently not, because I snatched them for $15 on clearance.

These are really amazingly well made hiking boots, men's size 8m, sturdy leather, comfortable fit, padded in all the places they're supposed to be to not chafe when one is... what, hiking up the side of a mountain? In these shoes? I don't think so! But perhaps some of those early expeditions to the South Pole would have been more successful, if they'd had a pair of these babies to light their way through a blizzard. The black rubber on the sides is in fact emblazoned with the inspirational message "Dream It. Be It." How can you not love shoes that are stylish, functional, and inspirational?!. The brand is "First Down" and I've never seen them before or since.

Bonus points for the reader: Can you tell the city in which I work? Big hint: notice the tower between my feet.

2009 Aug 25: Bapesta

Found these on eBay. I believe they're Bapesta knock-offs. If I'd done more research I would have figured it out at the time, but I didn't know these were a major status symbol in some subcultures, and that the price was "too good to be true". Seventy five bucks for a really cool pair of kicks in fact seemed a bit steep, but fair. Had I known that the originals run around $400, it would of course have been obvious these were fakes.

I will say this, at least they're really high quality, more or less the same as the originals. These shoes are really popular in my neighborhood, everyone comments on them. I liked them because they're loud and graphic, who knew that they were the height of rapper fashion, and Japanese teenage culture at the time?

I can argue all the sides of the debate about knock-offs, but I fall pretty solidly on the side of the trademark holder. No, these shoes aren't worth $400, no matter what factory they were made in. It's also true that the people that ripped off the design and trademark didn't actually take any business away from BAPE, not on this pair anyway, because I would never have spent $400 on a pair of sneakers, are you out of your friggin mind? I love me my shoes as much as the next unrepentent shoe-queen but we need a new dishwasher before I need to spend $400 on a cool pair of kicks. I hope even if I get really rich somehow, I never spend $400 on a pair of sneakers, and instead buy 4 pairs of really good sneakers for poor kids, or something, you know, like Babe Ruth, buying new shoes for all the kids in the orphanage

But, if you think the price is stupid, you don't buy them. If a company made shoes like the original BAPESTAs from BAPE, I still would have bought them because I'm not brand conscious, simply quality and style conscious, but a lot of people would not.

Forget the legality, it's just wrong to forge copyrights and trademarks. If you've ever had any of your work stolen and passed off as someone else's, you'd be with me on this. At any rate, I believe that one made the original top ten list, in fact.

But because I own these, I wear them. A visual reminder to myself to know what I'm buying.

2009 Aug 24: Smokin Chuck's

Today I'm wearing my Chuck Taylor flame high tops, the originals they made about 5 years ago? Because I own so many shoes, they haven't gotten a lot of wear and tear, and paradoxically, that's because I love them so much I don't want to ruin them. Also, I can't really wear them to work most days. It's not just the dotcom bust that forced a more professional look on IT workers, there's also the grim fact that pushing 50, I don't want to come off like a pathetic old geezer trying to look like a 20 year old.

That said, these are really speaking to my love of rockabilly and 50s style Rock and Roll. That was the subculture that was on the wane in my formative youth, and our neighborhood hoodlum, Charlie P---- with his 57 chevy held together with rustoleum, and his friend Chip were inexplicably appealing to my nine year old self. I was drawn to them like a moth to a flame, but by the time I was old enough to hang out, that era was done, the greasers were gone, the hippies were settling into day job drudgery, and all we were left with when I reached my teens was the insipid sensibilities of Alan Alda's sensitive 70's nice guy. Blah.

And while I know that there is a certain amish-like subculture of youngsters way too young to remember actual 'greasers', who dress in period costumes of that generation, I frankly find that a bit uh. Restrictive? Rigid? Ok I'll be blunt. Weird and creepy. Sure, I like me my bowling shirts and my cuffed jeans and if I had all that hair left, my pompadour, but uh. They're just clothes to me, not a religion. It is 2009, and cars really have improved. Electricy, fuel injection, Horse and buggy, standard four on the floor, it's a compelling parallel... Plus. That subculture is very agressively heterosexual with the talk about dames and broads and the whole Betty Page thing going on. Whatever happened to the sensibility fostered by The Cramps?

At any rate, as I've mentioned before, it's important to accessorize one's ensemble. Check out this shirt I scored over tax-free weekend.

2009 Aug 20-21Shoes Every Two Days

What kind of world is it when one's job responsibilities interfere with one's blogging?

These are what I had on yesterday, a pair of deconstructed Chuck's. I get comments and compliments from random strangers everywhere I go in these. Old men, young men, women, children, everyone loves these sneakers. They are Classic Converse Chuck Taylor's, but they're made from plaid wool with a purple canvas lining. The brown rubber sole with the green and purple stripes make them somehow more cool. The edges are unfinished, giving them a "deconstructed" look. Found them on eBay as I have found so many of my favorite shoes. I don't know whether I'm flattered or embarrassed that in a pile by the door, my family assumed they belonged to my brother's 20-something son. He's pretty cool so I guess it's a compliment whether they thought so or not.

The checkerboard sneakers I'm wearing today would be my favorites if they fit right, but they're T.U.K. and as I've mentioned, they run a full size small. I took the bondage strap off the back, that thing just annoys me, getting caught on stuff, and it just seemed stupid. Given how much I love hardware and straps and clips and things, I'm a little surprised I feel that way but who am I to question myself?

I scored these GBX hikers for $12.99 USD at Savers, a chain similar to the Goodwill Industries stores, only with better prices and less uppity people taking donations. I was needing a pair of workboots since my old ones have just gotten too small. Because they're intended to be used as work boots, things I can drop lumber on without severing a toe, walk around on wet concrete (on the off chance it ever rains again in Central Texas) without slipping, like that. I didn't care if they were used, just in good condition, not smelly or weird. These fit the bill, or so I thought.

Turns out they weigh like twenty pounds and after an hour or so it feels like I'm dragging concrete blocks around on my feet. I know you're wondering why I didn't snap to that fact in the store, and I have no answer for that. All I can figure I must have been thinking at the time was, I was looking for "sturdy", and that's how I translated "each shoe weighs about the same as a brick, bricks are sturdy, they hold up houses, heck, buildings in the Boston and Philadelphia and other place have been standing for four hundred years now, so these must therefore be good shoes!" At least they're not uncomfortable. If I don't have to walk much. If I don't have to walk much I really don't need shoes. As much as I love stylish shoes, shoes are not purely decorative, and I do demand that they be functional.

So it's back to Savers for these guys, since I no longer seem able to muster up any garage sale spirit. Maybe in the dead of "Winter", if it drops below a hunnert I will find the spirit to sit on my front lawn amid a pile of my old junk and brush up on my Spanish. And maybe some guy with really big calf muscles will pick these shoes up and I won't feel guilty pawning them off on someone.

2009 Aug 18: The Great Grape Ape

There was a Hanna Barbera cartoon when I was a kid, Junior High maybe, I'm not sure because I wasn't allowed to watch Saturday morning cartoons, but it was called "The Great Grape Ape", something to do with a giant purple gorilla that played High School football. Our school bus driver at the time was this round, overweight surly guy in a stained purple t-shirt; can you guess what we called him?

These are my latest e-bay score and I do mean score, $25.01 including S&H, Puma canvas sneakers, men's size 9 they are totally sweet. They fit like wrestling shoes, very lightweight and snug across the arch - no, I never wrestled and don't ask how I know how wrestling shoes fit. I will leave that question as an exercise for the reader. But you may call me "El Rey del Mono"

eBay is my ultimate favorite place to find offbeat shoes, I got hooked about four years back with my Yellow and red suede Pumas. My one suggestion for buying shoes from eBay or any other online retailer is, know your brands and how they fit your feet before buying. The numbers hardly have much meaning anymore in terms of size, and while I don't want to come off as a xenophobe, I do believe it's an inevitable confusion of trying to publish sizes and sell shoes worldwide, with so damn many different sizing schema, that, as far as I can tell, are not published or regulated. Used to be, back in the day, you just had to know that you wore a size 7 in English shoes, a size 42 in Chinese slippers, and a size 8 in US men's sizes. And if you were a little adventurous, you might even know that that meant you wore a size 10 in US women's shoes. Which makes me wonder why it's not the reverse, since in general, women want to be smaller than they are and men want to be bigger than they are, because we all know what big feet means.

But I digress.


I believe for instance, that T.U.K. simply has no concept of what the size numbers actually mean, they just came up with their own idiosyncratic numbering scheme. I am convinced of this because I have to buy a size 10 men's to get them to fit on my foot without mashing my toes in the tip, whereas normally I am an 8.5 or 9. And no, I did not accidentally buy women's shoes, because they're marked with both sizes. Chuck Taylors, on the other hand, have the exact opposite problem, where they run about a whole size larger than they're marked, so if you wear a 9 you're best off buying an 8.5 or even an 8, but again, go to a brick and mortar and try them on first, because you can't know till you put them on your feet.

But back to the topic of my fantabulous new purple sneakers. When wearing strong colored shoes, it's important to accessorize not just one's golf polo, but one's beverage as well.

2009 Aug 14: Brown "shovel toe" laceup oxfords

These were the original brown oxford I bought for work about a year ago. I like them because of the modern toe, I've seen it described as a "shovel toe" which is actually kind of apt, as they tend to be very narrow and flat toward the toe, causing them to curl up slightly. With my monkey feet, it's easy to flip up notebooks and hook lunchbags up off the floor without having to bend over. Why bend when you can grab things with your feet? I'm dangerous barefoot. I also like these because they're slightly higher than your average shoe, coming up right to the ankle joint, almost like a very low boot. I've got a weakness for boots. Casual, dress, work, anything but cowboy boots. Guys from NJ should not wear cowboy boots, it's just ridiculous and more than a little bit sad.

They're a decent quality shoe, Venturini, made in Italy, rubber soles, remember what I said about rubber soles. At least these don't have tribal patterns or company logos, led's, squeaky toys, inflatable flubber cushions, or gummi worms molded into the sole. Alas, they just don't fit right. I tried to make them work, but after a day of extremely light walking around at work, the arches of my feet just hurt. Maybe some gel insoles would help, I don't know. I think, sadly, my feet just aren't made for Italian shoes. Six months after I tried making these work I bought the Dockers I talked about in yesterday's post. Boring, but they don't make my feet hurt.

2009 Aug 13 Bown Cap Toes

Today I'm wearing Dockers' cap-toe brown oxford, US men's 9W. There's a two-day moratorium on the six week long casual clothes festival because the State Board of Education is meeting in our building. These rules about what you can wear crack me up, seriously, I read email and just laugh. They take this very seriously at the State, I could be written up if I show up in pants made from the wrong kind of fabric. How can you not laugh? It's real life theater of the absurd. I tell you what, if they told me I had to wear a brown paperbag hat on Tuesdays, I would, and it'd be stylish, too. At any rate, I needed brown shoes for work, because it just isn't done to wear black dress shoes with chinos, and these were what I could find in a wide width at some discount shoe place with an actual retail front, Famous Footwear I think.

Some people would call these dress shoes (Dockers thinks they are) but let's be honest, they're simply somewhat dressy casual shoes. Men's dress shoes are not made by "Dockers" and they don't have rubber soles. Come to think of it, is there really such a thing as a brown dress shoe? I think they fall in the same category as short sleeve dress shirts, a tautological impossibility

Hey, I don't make these rules, I just report them.

2009 Aug 12 Granola stompers

These are my latest acquisitions, Skechers "Tao sneakers", another concession to conformity. They smack of upscale new-agey granola-munching bicycle-riding tv-eschewing, send-your-kids-to-a-french-language-pre-school NPR-listening ex-hippies. They're called "Tao sneakers" for cryin' out loud.

So how come I keep getting lost with these babies on my feet?

2009 Aug 11: Early Bird Specials

There is a reason I forgot to post this picture all day, and that is because I loathe these shoes. I got talked into them because they're comfortable, and 60 lbs. ago, my feet hurt a lot when I did much walking, like, across the street from the parking garage to the entrance to the building where I work.

Seriously though, all I need is a fanny-pack, a canvas hat from LLBean, and I'm ready to go cruising the early bird specials at Luby's with my AARP card. These shoes have no soul, no style, but I have found them very useful when I want to travel incognito, say when going through airport security, and prefer to be mistaken for an old fat goober rather than an old fat biker. It's a control thing. I like to choose who gets to shove their fingers up my butt.

But in the spirit of my shoes a day challenge, I figured (a) they are acceptable for my state job where looking like an old fat dork earns more points than looking like an old fat biker.

And, um... I only sometimes look like a biker, motorcycles are too dangerous, I could lose a leg or something, eww! I have expensive tattoos to think about, and although I find the thought hilarious, there's probably a law against skinning even your own body parts. But man, the backs of my legs would make great colors.

2009 Aug 10: more wingtips

These are my newer wingtips; I have a thing for wingtips. They are as fancy as men's dress shoes can get and still be considered "conservative", curlicues, punches hole decorations not-withstanding. These are just cheap shoes from Kohl's, (yes, my sister at JCPenney just issued a psychic shriek) because frankly, with the rubber outsole and cushioned insole, they are really comfy. More comfy than the much more stylish Bostonians with their hard leather sole.

The leather is weird though, I believe it's made from that vinyl impregnated leather I read about (can't find the article at the moment). It squeaks when you rub it against itself, stays kind of shiny, and has a generally plasticky feel, a different plasticky feel than traditional patent leather, which tends to crack and scuff over time. It's definitely leather, but if it came off the poor cow in this state, well... poor cow!

2009 Aug 07: Bostonian Black Wingtips

The first time I ever travelled to Europe, I experienced a fashion dissonance so profound it changed my life. There, out in public, men, gay men, men I knew, men I consorted with, men who are purported to be the definers of good taste, were wearing dress shoes, classic black leather shoes with leather soles, with jeans. Dungarees. Denim. It was like capers on cheez-wiz, Grandmother's pearls with a tie-died t-shirt dress. It was very unsettling, and yet, somehow, appealing. It was as if they'd gotten their American fashion sensibility from watching Hollywood movies, and in movies, they never show feet, so they were left to fill in the gap.

Today I am wearing black Bostonian wingtips, 8.5 US wide. I have a predilection towards that brand because (a) they have wide widths, and (b) they have a very traditional, almost victorian style. It's hard to find proper leather-soled shoes anymore, that don't cost hundreds of dollars.

2009 Aug 06 : Green Day sneaks

These are today's shoes.

Ok, I'm a tad embarrassed that these are "Green Day" canvas high tops, but I covered the round logo with my own custom fireplug logo, so noone can tell. They're just so darn green, who could not love them?