My (Really Ugly) New Shoes

When I purchase a pair of shoes, in the back of my mind I’m always expecting them to last ten years or more.  I’m always surprised when they don’t.  After Mr. Trouble on Feet was born and it turned out that my feet had grown yet another half size (my feet grew a half size with EACH kidlet, and I now wear a shoe two sizes bigger than when I started . . . those bones really spread), I went with Dr. Peds to the Duluth Running Company Store to find a pair of shoes that really fit the right way.  They determined that I had a neutral foot strike, and gave me four choices of shoes.  I picked the ones that were the most comfortable.   Those shoes were wonderful, and I loved them.  Unfortunately, a few months ago I started to get shin splints again when I was walking fast, and I looked in my shoes and found large holes around the ankles, and more holes up by the toes.

I said to myself, “These shoes cannot be wearing out!  They are only as old as my youngest child.”  I eeked them along for another few months.  Then at Thanksgiving my husband was helping me put on my yak tracks before I went walking.  “These shoes are getting worn out,” I sighed.

“No kidding!” he replied.  “Why don’t you get some new ones.”

I mentioned that I just didn’t feel like they should be worn out yet, and new shoes were just so expensive.  Auntie Dot asked how long I’d had them and then snorted a little bit, which surprised me.  She mentioned that if you add up the price of expensive shoes over that many years, they really aren’t all that expensive.  And the shoes were wearing out, for real.

Last week I decided I would go to the Duluth Running Company store while Mr. TOF was in preschool and pick out a new pair of shoes.  I was really, really hoping that Dr. Peds was going to come home from his meeting at work to go with me to the shoe store.  There are many, many things I am happy to do by myself.  Shoe shopping is not one of them, and the Duluth Running Company makes me itchy because it’s a store entirely about running.  I hate running, friends!  I’d never go there if they hadn’t found me such a great pair of shoes!  It’s not that they are not nice or helpful.  The people there are wonderful, really!  Their store is beautiful!  It’s just not the place for me, and it makes me twitchy.

For example, the salesperson helping me with my shoes was one of those ultimate marathon runners who runs races that are like 50 miles long asked me:

“So, where do you go running?’

Uhm, I mostly go walking. 

“Do you have any races coming up?”

Uhm, I would never run in a race ever.  EVER.  I can’t think of anything more torturous, really.

“Do you want to run on the treadmill to try these shoes out?”

In front of you?  In this store?  Are you crazy?  I don’t run in front of my husband.  I don’t run in the daylight.  I scream nasty things at anyone who opens the garage door to peek in if I’m using the elliptical machine, which isn’t very often because I’d rather walk in the woods or around the neighborhood.  I might fall off that treadmill entirely.  How embarrassing.  

The first two pairs of shoes I didn’t like at all.  They were not comfortable.  The second two pairs of shoes were wonderfully comfortable.  One was a beautiful navy blue.  The other was the ugly pair of shoes in the image above.  The ugly pair was just a snatch more comfortable for my feet, and so I decided to do the right thing and go with that pair, even though the other pair was so much prettier.

The salesman asked me if I wanted to look around the store more, but it was getting a little hard to breathe in there, so I kindly replied that I needed to pick up my son from preschool.  Thank you very much.

Ten minutes had passed, and he probably thought I was the most decisive costumer ever.

On the way home, I started to really regret these new ugly shoes.  They really are so UGLY!  Maybe I should have kept  the old ones.  Maybe I should turn around the car and exchange these for the beautiful pair.  But that would involve a lot of explaining to that salesperson and my credibility might be in question.  I sort of knew the salesperson, who has kids in school with my kidlets, so I really just didn’t want to deal with that.  Plus, I don’t do a lot of socializing when I’m walking, so it’s not that anyone else was really going to be scrutinizing these shoes.

I brought the shoes home, and showed them to Mr. TOF after I picked him up from preschool.

“Aren’t these the ugliest shoes ever?”

He loved them.  LOVED them.  “Those are superhero shoes, Mom!”

When the big kids came home from school, I showed them.  Mr. SP said, “GREAT SHOES!”

YaYa looked at them and started laughing.

When Dr. Peds saw them he was very impressed.  He truly did like these shoes.

ALL the males in this family like my shoes.

I think it’s the red, white and blue that I don’t like.  I’m not patriotic, and then adding that gold streak in their too, just really sends me over the edge.  However, they are growing on me every day, and the shoes really are SO comfortable when I’m walking.

I just think of myself as SuperMom.