Ten Dollar Horse and Forty Dollar Saddle

Photo courtesy Flickr

When back to school time rolls around, I start thinking about winter wardrobe. Pedestrian footgear is the foundation of my active life. Shoes are political, shoes are aesthetic, shoes are the key to costume and one’s role. Shoes can be a pain in the neck. The choice of shoe brings one face to face with the social rift between groundling and cavalier.

Shoes are fundamental transportation, the key to emergency preparedness, and a critical element of fitness. Every dollar spent on footgear creates advantage or disadvantage, and developments in shoe technology have brought a surprising change to the market: even a $5 plastic-soled cotton slipper becomes an effective walking shoe with a $40 high-tech insole.

In choosing what to put on in the morning, traditional thinking says dress for the weather first, then for who you are and for what you will be doing. To the weather, I add how far I’ll be from home and whether I’ll be able to walk back if, say, another big quake disrupts the busses like the one in 2001. There is also the perennial question of whether I want to be able to run if someone hassles me on the street.

Thinking along these lines does not encourage visions of stilettos, although I often consider tying a pair together with a shoe lace and slinging them over my shoulder like a samurai in one of Kurosawa’s movies.

The perfect fusion of practicality and style is not yet on the market, but, doggone it, the classic American tennis shoe manufacturer puts out a canvas slip-on that’s cut to perfect slimming English high-street lines. With aftermarket insoles, these shoes set me up with racing wheels, and are good to go all day in any weather, in any terrain, under any ordinary daytime load. They’re good in the gym, too. Unfortunately, these shoes impress no one, wear out in weeks, and do not recycle. They cost more for each wearing than a $250 leather flat.

I haven’t resolved my questions about footgear, but a recent visit to the Internet turned up a custom shoe maker in town whose prices are competitive. Custom seems a bit much, right now, but I’ll file it away as a possibility, and keep bugging the kid’s people about upgrading those slip-ons.

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