meme: getting to know you

[cellio]

I've seen this a bunch of times in the last few days:

The problem with LJ: We all think we are so close, but really we know nothing about each other. So if you like, ask me something you think you should know about me. Something that should be obvious, but you have no idea about. Ask away.

Then, if you like, post this in your LJ and find out what people don't know about you.

Comments

[estherchaya.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I DO find that "good" shoes last longer. By far. Maybe we're buying different kinds of shoes.

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

Yeah -- I've been wearing Ecco shoes, they last about two years of daily wear. Granted, they cost about $100, but it amortizes down quickly.

The reason the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.
Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in the city on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.
But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while a poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.
This was the Captain Samuel Vimes "Boots" theory of socioeconomic unfairness.

[cellio]

I'd be willing to pay that if I could get that long out of a pair. (See my comment to estherchaya about failure modes.)

[cellio]

Or maybe the failure modes are different. I do find that it's worth buying good sandals (e.g. Birkies rather than the $20 knock-offs), but for regular shoes, the point of failure for me is always the uppers -- specifically, they will develop holes either above my big toe or on the outside edge next to the widest part of the small toe. Yes, I've gone to good shoe stores, asked them to fit me properly, and bought what they recommended. $100 shoes and $20 shoes fail in this way at about the same rate (about a year, or a bit less). I'd love to be able to wear a pair of regular shoes long enough to have problems with the soles! That happens to me with sandals, but not otherwise.

It's a puzzle!

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

Do you wear socks? Offhand it sounds like maybe you need a wider than usual toe box. IANAC (I am not a cordwainer, etc.)

Re: It's a puzzle!

[cellio]

I do wear socks, yes. (Well, with shoes; not with sandals.) I've tried different thicknesses of socks to see if that makes a difference, but it doesn't seem to.

I think you're right that I need a wider, and perhaps taller, toe box, and I select for this when shopping. But somehow it's never enough. Maybe I walk weirdly. :-)

Re: It's a puzzle!

[aliza250.livejournal.com]

Once upon a time, I went into a good shoe store and asked for a pair of size 7 1/2 shoes.

The staffer offered to measure me, and ended up selling me a pair of SAS walking shoes, size 6 WWW, that fit wonderfully, and which I'm still wearing regularly 7 years later, including 3 years of daily wear-to-work.

I also recommend the brand of sneakers I wear, which has a really big toe box. (I'd have to dig for that info, sorry.)

Re: It's a puzzle!

[jerusha.livejournal.com]

I agree, it sounds like you've got wider feet than your shoes are willing to accommodate. (I've had that exact failure mode with too-narrow shoes before.)

I found a local "wide and hard to fit" shoe store, and I now wear a 6.5 EE shoe. The ones I have are the Canfield Performance Walker by P. W. Minor. (They have a find-a-dealer box on their home page.) This shoe comes in wide (D), double wide (EE) and quadruple wide (EEEE!) - it's likely that if it's a width problem they'll have something that can fit you. I pay $110-120 for a pair, and I'm at 1.5 years with the older pair and 0.5 with the newer, and probably have several years of wear left on each pair.