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Happy Feet

September 16, 2013 •

Friends would never accuse me of a shoe fetish — thank good­ness for that! You won’t find gazil­lion dol­lar charges on my credit cards for Jimmy Choo, Manolo Blah­nik or other fash­ion­ista brands. But I care a lot about wear­ing the right shoes, when it counts.

Shoes for Boating

All last week I lived in boat shoes that fea­tured a really grippy sole, ideal for mov­ing around on wet sail­boat decks.

We were on a week­long char­ter with 3 other friends, and I had to be ready to han­dle my share of crew chores. Yoga gave me core strength for han­dling lines and dock­ing maneu­vers, but shoes with plenty of trac­tion kept me safe.

Wear­ing the right foot­gear made all the dif­fer­ence in com­fort, sta­bil­ity — and on wet sail­boat decks — per­sonal safety. No one wants to cause a “man over­board” res­cue just because their shoes lost trac­tion while motor­ing at speed.

My girl­friend’s so-called boat shoes were the same brand as mine, but hers quickly became uncom­fort­able and had no trac­tion. Even though she bought her shoes at West Marine, a boat­ing spe­cialty store, they were fash­ion shoes, not true boat shoes. (Admit­tedly, her feet looked more attrac­tive off­shore than mine.)

Her choice of shoes con­strained how she could help with sail­ing activ­i­ties, lim­it­ing her to times when sur­faces were dry or sta­bil­ity in motion was­n’t an issue. Buy­ing the wrong shoes ended up frus­trat­ing her; for­tu­nately, our sunny weather meant her non-grippy shoes did not put her at risk.

Shoes for Walking

When I was a young girl on my first visit to New York, my aunt advised me to sac­ri­fice fash­ion for com­fort when it comes to footwear. At the time she owned a closet full of high heels.

My aunt worked as a PR maven in Man­hat­tan dur­ing the height of the Mad Men era. She showed me how years of walk­ing on NYC pave­ments in high heels had deformed her feet and crum­pled her toes together. Her mes­sage: learn from my mis­take. I was shocked to see how man­gled her feet had become, and never for­got her les­son.

Instead you’ll see me wear­ing dusty walk­ing shoes from Mephisto, ugly but supremely com­fort­able shoes that enable me to walk for hours when vis­it­ing places like Barcelona or Paris. I may look like the ugly Amer­i­can, but my feet are happy to ven­ture out day after day because they are not crip­pled with pain or debil­i­tat­ing blis­ters.

I’m happy to live in Seat­tle, where peo­ple are will­ing to sac­ri­fice fash­ion for com­fort. At least most of the time…

About This Blog

Reflec­tions on life, travel, books, and yoga. Think­ing out loud about the pur­suit of mind­ful­ness and well-being.

Learn­ing how to recover from the loss of a beloved spouse, and then to find a trans­for­ma­tive path for­ward.

About Me

Semi-retired marketing exec, transitioning from a career in high tech. Now "managed" by two Tonkinese cats. Missing travel and friends on the West Coast. Avid reader and foodie. Staying active with long walks, biking, kayaking and yoga.

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