December meme post #2: Best shoes ever
yifu asked for "Your definition of best shoes ever."
Some questions invite "Where to begin?" This one doesn't. Because I am not, in any real sense, a shoes person; for most of my adult life, I basically wanted a pair of black sneakers, a non-steel-toed pair of combat books, sandals, and something else I could wear with a skirt. I never wore heels. I guess I always had a soft spot for tall boots, and I even bought a pair once when I was in university (black, knee-high, laced up the front and zippered up the side), but they weren't actually great boots or a great fit, and I never got in the habit of wearing them.
And then, oh, readers, I discovered Fluevogs. Quite a lot of my Toronto friends are into them, some of whom might strike you at first meeting as the type who'd be into designer shoes, and some of whom almost certainly wouldn't. Fluevog shoes were the first to make me want them. (Not all of them, mind you; quite a lot of 'vogs are either just not my style/not a style I'd aspire to, or are basic enough that I'm kind of like "...why would I pay your prices to get shoes that don't look that interesting?")
It's been a good few years now--four, maybe, or five at most--since I bought my first pair (blue ten-eye Derby Swirl Angels). I anguished over it, because while Fluevogs on sale are not horrifically priced for a designer label, they're always more expensive than I think/thought footwear should be, unless it was super-well-constructed/specialized (like really excellent hiking boots or something, which is what
scruloose would be prone to spend similar money on). And then I never really got in the habit of wearing them, largely because they never broke in properly--the blue leather in particular is very stiff--but also because, even though I did finally get them to a place where they're reasonably comfy as long as I don't have to do a lot of walking, I can't wear them to my office job because the leather is too stiff at the ankle for me to use the foot pedal audio control easily. (Woe.)
Fortunately, my other pairs haven't had that problem. Even better, since the summer I think I've been wearing Fluevogs a large majority of the time, although some pairs see a lot more use than others. (The Pattis are my all-weather footwear at the moment, which definitely helps with that.)
So, yes: Fluevogs. Yay! I even have a few pairs of heels now (all of them solid and not very high), and they're all comfy and look awesome. As a general rule I tend to have more of a materialistic streak than I like (although 'vogs aside, at least I don't tend to be into pricey things, thank goodness), but I find Fluevogs satisfying in a way a lot of objects aren't. They're funky and attractive and do their job pretty damn well, which is more than you can say for SO MUCH stuff.
As for The Best Shoes in terms of a single pair...that's harder. It depends on what you're doing! But (not counting the women's Zachary boots in purple, which are in the mail and thus haven't been worn yet and can't be considered), I think the shoes I own that I love most are the purple Jonis (from the same family as the Pattis). As I told pretty much everyone when I bought them, I wore them out of the store the day I bought them and proceeded to walk around Toronto for about eight hours, and they were comfy and basically perfect.
(For the curious/completists, other than the 'vogs I've already linked, I also have Connies in burgundy/red, Malibrans in wine-red, and Luxons in blue.)
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