shoewise

I just had my shoes re-heeled. Two pairs of them. It was not something I did to save money. It was something I did, and plan to do more often, to lessen my life's pile of shoes. This is a recurring thought I have whenever I finally throw away a pair of shoes. My life pile. Possibly that is why the idea of Human Footprint really hits home for me. For a very long while, my life's pile of shoes has been growing in the back of my mind. Once, a few years ago, a girl I was nannying for asked me why I didn't just get a new pair of shoes. The shoes she spoke of were $3 Chinatown slippers. My big toe was peeking through the front end and the soles of them were almost worn through. I told her that I felt like every day I wore them was a bonus day. I tried to explain to her that I threw away so many pairs of shoes and that wearing them a few weeks longer would mean less pairs of shoes that I throw away in the end. The argument was barely sound and almost certainly fell on deaf ears, but I still believe in the idea. The idea that making a pair of shoes last as long as humanly possible is the best thing that we can hope to do- shoewise.

Bear with me while I do a little eco-math. I paid $14.99 for these shoes at Payless one year ago. Buying shoes at Payless is not earth friendly. They are cheap shoes. I could just as easily have thrown them away last week as take them to the cobbler. (Don't feel bad if a vision of peach crisp with ice cream just popped into your head. Ditto.) The cobbler charged $16 to stick a new heel on them. It would have been cheaper to buy a new pair of shitty shoes. But not if the cost of adding another pair of cheap shoes to my life's pile is something I don't think I can afford right now. And I really don't think I can afford that. Behold my born-again heels.


In fairness, it's not just about shoe garbage. Payless also does not make these shoes anymore. And these shoes are extremely comfortable, despite the high heel. It has to do with the heel placement, so take note. This is what comfy heels look like. As if I need another reason to want to make these shoes immortal- I get an obscene number of compliments on these shoes. Not to mention that they are vegan and easy to clean, given that they're closer cousins to lawn furniture than to designer shoes.

I also got my black ruched boots re-heeled for $18. Here they are next to my tan ruched boots.


I am going to re-heel my tan boots elsewhere as a means of comparison shopping. If I got nothing else from my years studying chemistry, I have solid faith in my ability to set up a controlled fashion experiment. See, Dad? Just when you were thinking that the schooling hadn't paid off.