Do I really have a favorite pair of shoes?

Honestly, when it comes to shoes I prefer as little as possible. Socks in the winter, barefoot in the summer – when I must go shod, it’s sheepskin-lined Red Wing sheepskin-lined mocs in the cold, Sockwa G-series when it’s warm. So this is not about whether I have a favorite pair of shoes, but where they have taken me, correct?

My feet are amazing machines. They have taken me from Detroit to Clearwater, Florida, to San Francisco and I have not stopped walking yet. If you think about it, the human feet take such a pounding that it’s a wonder that they don’t stop functioning altogether at some point, and yet most of us make it through life with little to no problems related to our feet – that is, until we start trying to make it easy for the feet to do what they do. It’s like those people in Disney’s Wall-E – they sit in their weird hover-chairs, they zip around in lanes from one end of the mother ship to the other, and they hardly move a muscle except to press a button or to take a sip from their fruity drinks; I suspect they’re mai tais or sex on the beaches. Because nobody knows what they’re doing on the beach otherwise, am I right? They’re like human porpoises.

That’s what happens to some feet when you overcorrect for certain issues. I say some feet because it’s like some people read Born to Run and become convinced that Nike has perpetrated a conspiracy against our feet, but it’s more like this: the more we correct for stuff, the more we enable heel-strike based running, the worse people’s feet get over the long run. We’re inured by this culture of “you have to wear shoes outside, your shoes have to be special to run in them.”

Did you know that it’s healthier for your feet to run in those old-school Converse Chuck Taylor shoes than most varieties of New Balance, Nikes, Adidas, Pumas, and any other shoes? Most of it has to do with the way you run. But hey, I’m getting off-track here. If you want to read about proper running, find it here.

My point is, I don’t have a favorite pair of shoes, and if they did, I couldn’t tell you where they’ve taken me because I wear one pair most of the time and they’re my work boots. Do I like them? Not really. I’d rather be barefoot. So I chose instead to tell you where my feet have taken me.

Thankfully, they’ve carried me to the table where I’m typing on my laptop right now. If I’m lucky they’ll do it again tomorrow, right?

This post was prompted by today’s Daily Post prompt.

4 comments

whatfatgirl says:

August 25, 2013 at 10:22 pm

Great post! I really like the part regarding people’s misconceptions about running in specific shoes. I love my Vibrams but I don’t like how my calves end up tight for days after I’ve run on them. But, it’s all about form. Here’s to successfully training for a half marathon!

- Rob's Surf Report says:
  
  August 25, 2013 at 11:28 pm
  
  Exactly, my sentiments as well.
  
mynuttydubai says:

August 26, 2013 at 12:29 am

Hi Rob,
Just a quick stop by (for now) to say thanks for the pingback 🙂
I’ll be back soon to take a better look around your blog!

- Rob's Surf Report says:
  
  August 26, 2013 at 4:33 am
  
  Well thanks for stopping and commenting. 🙂