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?

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!