A Bipedal Adventure in Androgyny

[tealin]

No secret society or religious order, with all their mystic robes and symbols, can hush up a shocking, taboo-shattering truth I discovered this week, and which I must share with you.

Men's shoes are really comfortable.

I had to get leather-soled shoes for a dance this weekend, and as the sort of women's shoes that have leather soles are usually high-heeled and extremely uncomfortable (not to mention completely the wrong style), I decided to try finding some nice men's work shoes which I could then continue to use in the fall. After a fair amount of travail and bike mileage I managed to lay my hands on a pair that were both leather-soled and small enough for me, which was an elusive combination. They aren't quite broken in yet, but they are awesome. Get this:
- They're wide enough for my feet at the front without being specially 'wide.'
- Because they're not specially wide, the heel is actually narrow enough that it stays on.
- They lace up
- The laces actually cover the instep so when I tighten them the shoe is firmly secured on my foot.
- They are generic enough to go with lots of things.
- They are roomy enough for arch-support inserts.
- I can run in them if I need to.*
- They make a radio-friendly footstep sound when I walk so people can know if I'm coming or going.

Additionally, mine are black and shiny and a little old-fashioned ('classic'), and they make me feel like I should go hang off a clock face.

All those years of searching fruitlessly for sensible, subtle, comfortable shoes, when all I needed to do was cross to the other side of the store... I still draw the line at a tie and/or watch chain, though. My rules are arbitrary but there they are.

*This is an important thing to consider when buying shoes, in my opinion. You never know.

Comments

[amarafox.livejournal.com]

I'm a 7.5 womens, and all the mens shoes I've tried start one size too big for me :(

Sad I am!

It's hard enough for me to find a half size, let alone a half size WIDE.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

I was baffled as to where teenage boys get their shoes - most places I went had small boys' shoes (up to the age of 10, I'd guess) and adult men's but no intermediate sizes. I know guys have growth spurts, but do they go barefoot in the midst of them?

The store where I finally got mine (after trying Payless and Shoe Pavillion, among others) was a tiny independent just-shoes shop downtown, the type that doesn't have tons of boxes on display, just samples. When the guy went back to get size 6s he offered to bring out something smaller, too ... They weren't a bargain, but having grown up with cheap shoes, I can honestly say that good shoes are worth it.

[(Anonymous)]

*sigh* I have the most annoying feet in the world. I wear a size four-and-a-half shoe, and most stores don't even carry that size, because kids' sizes stop at four and adult sizes start at five. I haven't grown since third grade, so I still have all my old shoes from then, but most of them are really shabby or else they look like little kid shoes (all pastel Mary Janes and those heinous light-up shoes), so I never wear them. To make matters worse, my feet are totally flat and my toes are wide, kind of like duck feet. The only shoes that really fit me are kids' sized Converses.