Shoes and Shoe Matters

Though shoes are important in my life - maybe not as important as in the life of other, average women - I haven't gone shopping for shoes in quite a while. Besides, due to my new "be frugal" personal policy (it doesn't apply to coke and all the goody food I like to eat, like my greek wraps and hummus, sushi, my Italian food from Barbatos or the awesome burgers from doc brown), I have only bought shoes when there was a real-real need for them. This is how I bought black pumps a while ago to replace a pair that kicked its last walk (and I can't be left with only one pair for black shoes, mind you), a sandalish pair for black shoes (because the price was good and an extra pair of black, completing so three pairs always comes handy), then I bought my flats to replace my broken flats, and a pair of canvas flats so that I can wear flats when I'm not working, and thus abuse less my work flats. So, so far, the shoes I bought came as replacement of others I had but broke. Even with the "extra" pair, bough based on the good price, another pair of shoes broken got tossed into the waste basket.

In the recent month or so both my sneakers ripped. The brandless, a white and red one got the fake leather from the nose flaring up and flaking off, and my black nikes ripped next to the laces. I didn't mind much because I was using my flats now, but then things happened. 

On one side there's this building we will be moved to next month, and in it, we'll be at the 15th floor. Now, after hearing and reading about all the amazing and safe features of it, I decided that I won't get close to the elevators if I can avoid it, which will mean me using the stairs extensively. However, the stairs aren't either safe, so I need safe shoes to climb them. Safe and comfty, because we are talking about 15 floors here. So I needed sneakers, which meant that I had to buy sneakers. It was time for me to replace my old, ripped sneakers with new ones. Now, I was clear from the begining that my new sneakers should comply with three requirement: they had to be CHEAP because I would be using them a lot, so they would rip again soon, so I didn't want to spend too much on something that won't see 2011. They had to be black, so that they won't be too notoriou, and finally, they had to be very comfortable.

Add to the need of new sneakers, since the rainy season has started already, I decided that this time around, I wanted rubber boots. This is the other thing. Thing is that year after year my shoes get ruined, worn quite badly thanks to the rainy season. All my magic boots and half boots have slowly paraded to the garbage can, and those left had the soles quite thin and prone to leak in water. Basically all of my sandals did the last walk to the garbage can too, so I was left with just a pair of "school shoes" I bought last year, which have thick soles. However that wasn't going to be nearly enough, nor I wanted to abuse those shoes and end up runing them. I need all the flats I can get, and along with that one, I have only two pairs. So, this year it was time for me to buy rubber boots.

Decorative rubber boots have come into fashion among youngster two years now, and their price is quite high, their quality quite low. I wanted something durable and good, and hopefully not too expensive. This is how I turned to working rubber boots, known here as "Colibrí" (Spanish word for hummingbird). They come in black, yellow and white, as far as I've seen them, and are usually used by fishermen, farmers and factory workers. They are really strong and prevent water or any other kind of liquids to get to the feet. They are what I need for rain. I don't care about the way they look, since my only concern is to keep my feet dry. This was pretty much the last thing that bothered me in the rainy season.

You see, for the matter of getting your clothes soaked, I replaced pants with skirts and dresses, so that I can pull them a bit higher and keep them from getting wet. For the matter of the water and the wind, which rends most of umbrellas useless, I've got myself a big umbrella. Can still get a plastic cape, and probably will work on that option in the next weeks. However my umbrella is big enough to keep my bag dry, and now that I always use my leather backpack, that's even easier. The last thing was my feet and how to keep them dry. Well, now I have my rubber boots for that. Now, I'll carry them around, and when rain starts falling, I'll just change my shoes and problem solved!

Yesterday I've got both my new sneakers and my rubber boots, which made me really happy, and I covered all my requirements. Today I made space for them in my closet, and took the chance to throw away all the shoes I didn't need anymore. There were my old, ripped ones that had served me so far.  However, before stashing them into the garbage, I came up with an idea that might benefit other women as well.

If you have the mind of job that requires you to wear elegant or formal shoes, this meaning, of course, high heels, you probably suffer often of hurt feet. You know, you feel like the sole becomes too hard, or it's so thing you can feel the gravel on the street, or it simply doesn't cushion the impact from walking, leaving you with hurt soles you can't wait to rub a little, slip into comfty flip-flops or home slippers, maybe even lay down and put them up high. For this we often buy all kinds of inserts and insole cushions like those of Dr. Scholl (when and where available), and many of them don't work and only leave a trail of grey or yellow ground foam in your shoes. Truth is that many of this inserts or insoles we can buy do not do their job, but cost us money.

Today, when I was tossing my old shoes, I noticed that the insole of my brandless sneakers could be removed, I did so, and they were in perfect condition. I slipped them into one of those kill-my-feet shoes and tried them on. A bit tight, but they were awesome! So I quickly removed the insoles of my nikes, which were harder to remove, but still came out good and in one piece and slipped them into a pair of black pumps.

I've always dreamed about having work shoes that look professional and formal on the outside, but are like sneakers on the inside. I believe that's a dream most of us women share. I don't know if I made it, but the insoles I removed were much more sturdy and thick than those sold separately, and definitivelly don't look like the ones that fold and move all over becoming more a pain than a relief.

I will be telling your about the results on my shoe experiment, but so far, from the try I've put them through I can tell you this: amazing, better than most of the things in the market, and inexpensive.

We often keep things we don't need, and we often throw away things that we don't need anymore, but from which we can still pull a little profit, so the next time you are throwing out shoes, check them out, see what you can salvage, and reuse it. Insoles, particularly those inside sneakers are incredibly comfortable, so save them if they are in good shape, and reuse them in your other shoes. Work shoes are my recommendation, since you usually spend a lot of time in them, and the more comfortable they are, the better they feel.