BREAKING IN PERIOD FOR NEW SHOES

For breaking in new shoes the store man said wear them at least ten hours.

I wore a pair for ten minutes out of the store and knew they weren’t right.

Too heavy, thin soles, and why did I even buy them?

To be honest, it happens all too often.

Every pair of shoes I try on in a store is the true answer, the meaning of life when it comes to shoes.

Then I get home, change my mind, and think I’m going to make the shoes work.

That’s how I get stuck with shoes that don’t fit, never fit, and all the regret that I fall for shoe talk every time.

In other words, I’ve found the true answer to the shoe question after I found the same answer last week in Nordstroms.

This time it was the Keen store in downtown Portland on NW Gleason and 13th.

It always starts the same with the wife and I shopping together.

She starts talking to the salesperson about shoes she likes seeing me in and in two shakes I’ve got five boxes of shoes arrayed in front of me.

And none of them are the right shoe.

After diving into box after box I finally found the right pair: Low cut hiking boots in size fourteen that look like clown shoes.

I was about to buy them when the wife said, “Why don’t you try the other shoes in that size. I think they were all size thirteen.

They were, but I’m having a hard time admitting I’m size fourteen with fallen arches.

But I am. And now I know why ninety years olds walk the way they do: their feet are killing them.

I’m not ninety, but I may have an old toe or two.

 

Breaking In An Old Story

If you wear certain shoes when you’re young you’ll say things like, “What was I thinking,” when you get older.

Toe cramming pointy-toe shoes with a downward forced stacked heel like these will ruin your feet over time.

No foot should be forced into these beauties.

Cowboy boots, ballet slippers, high heels? They all make your toes fight for space.

The pair of hiking Keens size fourteen looked like snowshoes, but they felt incredible.

I liked them better than the HOKA platform shoes that have so little lateral stability I rolled an ankle on a trail and took a fall.

No one needs that.

So the salesperson brought out a pair of blue sporty shoes in a fourteen that welcomed my feet like they were custom made.

They had room in the toe box without looking like swim fins, room in the front without looking like a barge, and the heel stayed put.

What else did I need? I wore them out of the store since they fit so good.

I took the dog around the block when I got home and I was still in love.

The next day I went longer and where other shoes wouldn’t make the cut, the new Keens were ready to keep going, and so was I.

The breaking in period was over.

 

What’s Next For Breaking In

At nineteen years old I bought a pair of boots too small for me because they looked good and they were on sale.

Frye Boots, the cool ones.

The next day I wore them at the start of a four day hitchhiking trip to San Francisco.

They were awful, my feet were swollen, but they were all I had so I stuffed my feet into that painful prison for the next three days.

Did bad fitting shoes ruin the trip?

Yes, they did. It was unrelenting pain in a walkable town, but I was a cool guy in the city of my birth.

Was I the drag-ass? Yep.

Some them I’ve steered clear of too short shoes. Do I look like a dork? Sometimes, but not this time.

This time I’ll put those new shoes on and take them to Northern England for further breaking in.

Will the British approve?

I’m certain they will, and I’ll hear, “What kind of shoes are those, they look incredible.”

If was wearing the foot-pillow New Balance for old people shoes, no one would ask.

They’d know already. More excitement coming up.