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?

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 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 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?