Monday, June 18, 2007

Ugly-ass Bruno Magli Shoes

This morning, the side-kick personality on the morning radio shoe that I listen to while getting ready for work (I know, I know, it's shameful that I listen to such a thing. Get over it. No snide comments, Mamacita, or I shall reciprocate.) told a story about his fiancee making him buy a pair of $400 Bruno Magli shoes at Saks Fifth Avenue over the weekend. The patter went something like this:
Side-kick: The salesman said that they could be resoled. I don't even know what that means.

Female lead
: You take them to one of those shoe hospital places when the soles wear out.

Male lead
: Who the hell uses those places? I mean, maybe if they were a pair of cowboy boots that you've had for 20 years or something, but I just throw them out when they wear out.

Side-kick
: I'm not throwing them out if they cost $400.
Any quality shoe, provided that it does not have a molded rubber sole, can be resoled. In fact, it should be resoled. Expensive shoes are only profligate if they are abused and destroyed before their time, and throwing shoes out rather than resoling them is abuse. Perhaps the male lead of this morning show doesn't realize this because all he wears are ugly, plastic shoes from Kenneth Cole, but this is a fact. A decent pair of shoes can last 20 year or more if they are taken care of and resoled when necessary. They are not meant to be ridden hard, put up wet, and tossed out when they are showing some wear.

(And, incidentally, I went to Saks this afternoon to see what $400 Bruno Magli shoes they had. There were about 4 different models, all ugly as sin, none of them worth anywhere close to $400. You might as well stick with plastic shoes from Kenneth Cole.)

1 comment:

Sara said...

Do you have opinions about women's shoes? Specifically, if I was going to buy a "20 year" pair of shoes, I don't know what would even last that long, style wise. Ballet flates. Tennis shoes. Loafers, maybe. But fashion drives so much of the styles in women's shoes (even more classic ones), and if one was to look back 20 years and see what still looks wearable...

Ah -- I know. Cowboy boots. That's the only thing I can think of that would weather a 20 year span of style. (And I'm planning on purchasing a pair for myself when I achieve my "100 excercise classes this year" goal)