Over the years, I’ve learned the hard way about shoes and how they can make you look super sexy or cause you much pain and suffering. I’ve received many compliments on my shoes, but if only they knew the pain I was in at the moment. The average person takes over 5000 steps a day and the number can increase to 10,000 if you use walking or running as a form of exercise. With that being said, it’s extremely important that the shoes you wear love you just as much as you love them. The first thing I learned about shoes is “you get what you pay for” just as anything else in this world. A few years ago, I bought the cutest pair of sandals from a discount shoe retailer who sold all their shoes for $9.99 (raised eyebrow). I absolutely adored these sandals; they were metallic gold with pearl and pink beading and they were indeed comfortable. I decided one bright summer day to wear the sandals to work. I honestly thought I was “too cute” strutting down the street in my cute sandals with my fresh pedicure. During lunch as I was walking back to work, the whole damn right sandal fell apart and I was left with nothing but the sole and a thin piece of thread that held what was left of the straps together. When I made it back to my desk, I instantly started looking for something to put these sandals back together. I tried to staple them back together and then I tried to use packing tape to tape them up but nothing work. I then thought about the closes store to me, the only store close to me was a Walgreens about a block and a half away. I taped the shoes together and walked cautiously to Walgreens as the tape unraveled bit by bit because I knew they sold flip flops. As luck would have it, Walgreens was totally out of flip flops and I was reduced to buying a pair of fuzzy terry cloth slippers to go home in. The worst part is they were blue and stood out so people stared at me….NOT FABULOUS, NOT CUTE, NOT SEXY, and definitely NOT CHIC!
This incident taught me 2 things 1) Always keep an extra pair of shoes at work and 2) Invest in quality shoes. I now buy shoes that I know are good quality and that I know won’t fall apart on me. In the past, I can’t count the number of times I’ve had shoe mishaps from buying a shitty ass pair of shoes. Now I find that my feet rarely hurt and I don’t have the mishaps that I’ve had when I purchased some off brand pair of shoes. Sometimes no matter how much we pay for the shoe, it’s just not a good fit and our feet end up hurting so bad until we want to scream. It’s nothing worst then a super cute pair of shoes that make your feet hurt! No matter how many times we wear them around the house to break them in or we make an attempt to stretch them. They just don’t work and they end up sitting in the closet, we give them away, or just throw them in the thrash. In fact, shoes are a lot like relationships, no matter how much we try to make them work or try to get them to love us back, it’s just not a good fit. We can’t force our feet into a pair of shoes that’s simply not made for us.
Shoe Shopping Tips
Try shoes on in the store and actually walk around in them. If you’re between sizes, go a size up not down. If a shoe hurts in the store, it will hurt when you get home! If you’re not use to wearing heels, start off by wearing wedges they give more support then stilettos. Invest in gel inserts and foot pads like petals, it provides extra comfort. If a shoe is slippery on the carpet, it’s slippery on the ground, invest in the grip pads that you can add to the bottom of the shoes. You will thank me if you ever wear a slippery pair of shoes on marble flooring (Avoid the accidental moonwalk). If you own a pair of shoes that may be tight around the toe area here’s a tip. Add alcohol to a spray bottle (rubbing alcohol not Vodka) and spray the shoe, put on thick socks and walk around your home for 20 minutes or more. This should stretch the shoe slightly but will not turn a size 8 into a size 10, not recommended for suede.
