The perils of finding good shoes
(Hint: you end up with too many of them.)
A week or so ago, I posted a realization on Facebook... that, as near as I can tell, one of the big secrets to successful adulting seems to be simply remembering to put things back where they belong when you're done with them. It's something I'm not particularly good at, but I'm getting better (in large part because I've discovered I really like being able to find what I'm looking for when I need it). This actually applies to something that happened yesterday.
Once upon a time, I didn't really wear shoes, at least not if I could help it. I owned, on average, about two pairs at any one time... preferring to go barefoot when I could (I even had ways of doing it stealthily) and wearing slippers that gave the illusion of wearing shoes when I couldn't, with usually a pair of sandals and a pair of skateboarding shoes for times when more shoe was required (the latter worked really well in the winter time... and unlike other sports shoes, they tended to be fairly flat inside with a lot of room for feet to spread as you walk).
Then I discovered minimalist shoes.
I love my Vibram Fivefingers. They've opened up this great new world to me and, I'll be honest, are the most comfortable shoes I've ever worn. I wear them hiking, walking, while doing yardwork, pretty much whenever... all things I used to do barefoot when I could. So, I watch for sales and when I find a particular model that I like, I'll buy several pairs, because I've learned that these sorts of things will actually get discontinued (seriously, before this I had very little exposure to the realities of shoe-buying). And then I discovered that there are other sorts of minimalist shoes out there... including my other favorite, Vivobarefoot. Their shoes look a lot more like normal shoes, but are designed to not confine feet the way normal shoes do and to still give some decent "Ground-Feel."
My previous favorites, Vibram FiveFingers Speed, got discontinued about a year ago... I managed to find some new ones out on eBay last year, but they're reaching end of life (and I sincerely thank my runner friends for telling me that shoes have a lifespan, because it honestly never would have occurred to me and I would have gone on being confused as to why my feet were suddenly starting to hurt), so I've been on the hunt for something to replace them.
And here's where it gets a bit funny...
Since minimalist shoes tend to be on the expensive side, I watch for sales and pick up a pair here and a pair there to try. Recently, I snagged a pair of Vibram KMD LS Cross Training shoes during a sale on Amazon. And I've loved them! The price has gone back up, so I've been waiting to order another pair. Then, the other day,![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rackham was looking for a pair of his shoes and spotted a few things, including what he thought were my new shoes... except I knew they were down by the door. Sure enough, I already owned a pair (looking through my purchase history, I picked up the other pair on a similar sale back in May).
But it gets even better... because he also dug out two more pairs of Vibrams that STILL HAD THEIR TAGS ON. They didn't look familiar to me at all and I couldn't remember when I would have gotten them. Looking through my purchase history, it turns out I got them during a sale on the Vibram site. In August of 2014. O.o Yeah, I have no idea how they ended up shoved to the back of a shoe cubby and ignored for a year.
So, yesterday I spent a bit of time and rounded up all my shoes from wherever I could find them in the house and, really, I think the main problem is that I'm just not used to having this many shoes... added to the fact that I do pick them up when I find them on sale. I've gone through them all and pulled out the ones that just didn't work (the Vibram sandals were oddly narrow and would pinch my toes, plus there's a new pair of Vibrams and a new pair of Vivobarefoots that both have attached tongues (which I've found will irritate the tops of my feet, because they fold over themselves and pinch)). I also discovered that I've got those two pair of Vibram KMD LS shoes, both of which are basically new, I've got a brand new pair of Vibram Spyridons which are probably my new favorite, a brand new pair of Vibram SeeYas that will work well in warm weather (those last two being the ones that I'd had for a year and had forgotten about) and a newer pair of Vivobarefoot Neo Trail Runners that I didn't know I had (I thought I only had the old worn out pair). That last one is a bit of a big deal, because it means I've already got a good pair of shoes to wear out on the Snoqualmie Valley Trail in the upcoming Half-Marathon (the trail is mostly pointy gravel and it totally beats up my feet when I'm wearing Vibrams).
On the plus side, I've at least identified the problem... but it's one that wouldn't have existed if I'd just followed that rule I mentioned in the first paragraph. If the shoes had all been where they belonged, I never would have ended up with the pile of them I've got now. Also on the plus side, now that I've gone through them all, I've figured out which ones don't need to be kept, so I've freed up more space. Yay!
And, well, I'm actually not sure there's a downside, because all the "found" shoes are ones I sort of wanted to buy anyway and I've saved myself some money by not getting even more of them. So, yay?
Crossposted from my Livejournal.
A week or so ago, I posted a realization on Facebook... that, as near as I can tell, one of the big secrets to successful adulting seems to be simply remembering to put things back where they belong when you're done with them. It's something I'm not particularly good at, but I'm getting better (in large part because I've discovered I really like being able to find what I'm looking for when I need it). This actually applies to something that happened yesterday.
Once upon a time, I didn't really wear shoes, at least not if I could help it. I owned, on average, about two pairs at any one time... preferring to go barefoot when I could (I even had ways of doing it stealthily) and wearing slippers that gave the illusion of wearing shoes when I couldn't, with usually a pair of sandals and a pair of skateboarding shoes for times when more shoe was required (the latter worked really well in the winter time... and unlike other sports shoes, they tended to be fairly flat inside with a lot of room for feet to spread as you walk).
Then I discovered minimalist shoes.
I love my Vibram Fivefingers. They've opened up this great new world to me and, I'll be honest, are the most comfortable shoes I've ever worn. I wear them hiking, walking, while doing yardwork, pretty much whenever... all things I used to do barefoot when I could. So, I watch for sales and when I find a particular model that I like, I'll buy several pairs, because I've learned that these sorts of things will actually get discontinued (seriously, before this I had very little exposure to the realities of shoe-buying). And then I discovered that there are other sorts of minimalist shoes out there... including my other favorite, Vivobarefoot. Their shoes look a lot more like normal shoes, but are designed to not confine feet the way normal shoes do and to still give some decent "Ground-Feel."
My previous favorites, Vibram FiveFingers Speed, got discontinued about a year ago... I managed to find some new ones out on eBay last year, but they're reaching end of life (and I sincerely thank my runner friends for telling me that shoes have a lifespan, because it honestly never would have occurred to me and I would have gone on being confused as to why my feet were suddenly starting to hurt), so I've been on the hunt for something to replace them.
And here's where it gets a bit funny...
Since minimalist shoes tend to be on the expensive side, I watch for sales and pick up a pair here and a pair there to try. Recently, I snagged a pair of Vibram KMD LS Cross Training shoes during a sale on Amazon. And I've loved them! The price has gone back up, so I've been waiting to order another pair. Then, the other day,
rackham was looking for a pair of his shoes and spotted a few things, including what he thought were my new shoes... except I knew they were down by the door. Sure enough, I already owned a pair (looking through my purchase history, I picked up the other pair on a similar sale back in May).But it gets even better... because he also dug out two more pairs of Vibrams that STILL HAD THEIR TAGS ON. They didn't look familiar to me at all and I couldn't remember when I would have gotten them. Looking through my purchase history, it turns out I got them during a sale on the Vibram site. In August of 2014. O.o Yeah, I have no idea how they ended up shoved to the back of a shoe cubby and ignored for a year.
So, yesterday I spent a bit of time and rounded up all my shoes from wherever I could find them in the house and, really, I think the main problem is that I'm just not used to having this many shoes... added to the fact that I do pick them up when I find them on sale. I've gone through them all and pulled out the ones that just didn't work (the Vibram sandals were oddly narrow and would pinch my toes, plus there's a new pair of Vibrams and a new pair of Vivobarefoots that both have attached tongues (which I've found will irritate the tops of my feet, because they fold over themselves and pinch)). I also discovered that I've got those two pair of Vibram KMD LS shoes, both of which are basically new, I've got a brand new pair of Vibram Spyridons which are probably my new favorite, a brand new pair of Vibram SeeYas that will work well in warm weather (those last two being the ones that I'd had for a year and had forgotten about) and a newer pair of Vivobarefoot Neo Trail Runners that I didn't know I had (I thought I only had the old worn out pair). That last one is a bit of a big deal, because it means I've already got a good pair of shoes to wear out on the Snoqualmie Valley Trail in the upcoming Half-Marathon (the trail is mostly pointy gravel and it totally beats up my feet when I'm wearing Vibrams).
On the plus side, I've at least identified the problem... but it's one that wouldn't have existed if I'd just followed that rule I mentioned in the first paragraph. If the shoes had all been where they belonged, I never would have ended up with the pile of them I've got now. Also on the plus side, now that I've gone through them all, I've figured out which ones don't need to be kept, so I've freed up more space. Yay!
And, well, I'm actually not sure there's a downside, because all the "found" shoes are ones I sort of wanted to buy anyway and I've saved myself some money by not getting even more of them. So, yay?
Crossposted from my Livejournal.
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