Sunday, August 19, 2007

Today's Shoes

Today's shoes are an experiment. They're Mephisto Allrounders (Arto model), and they're essentially laceless sneakers, with elastic gores instead of laces. I bought them somewhat as an impulse on Saturday at Harold's in the Heights, intending to use them as I would use casual loafers or driving mocs. On the plus side, these are very comfortable, and the elastic gores give a good fit without the pressure across the instep that laces sometimes give. On the minus side, they get a bit hot, and they're a bit ugly. I think that I like them on balance, but I'll have to wear them more to see.

3 comments:

letitia said...

John,
My dad is at the point where he wears only Mephistos as his business shoes, because of his bad feet. They evidently make a world of difference for him, but he occasionally gets comments in business meetings on his "clown shoes." Also, when one of my friends was doing a walking pilgrimage in Spain & Portugal, one of the 1st things she did was find a Mephisto store to try to make the pilgramage a little more comfy.

Soletrain said...

Letitia, some Mephisto shoes are uglier than others. I wouldn't classify any of them as actually attractive, but there are some that aren't actually butt-ugly. Alas, these shoes are indeed butt-ugly, so ugly, in fact, that they seem to make ugliness into a selling point.

letitia said...

I don't actually think my dad's shoes are ugly, I think they look younger and hipper than most of his shoes. They look a little like bowling shoes. I just think it's funny that they are evidently different enough from what everyone else in his military/industrial circles wears to get referred to as clown shoes. I don't think the shoes pictured are particularly ugly either, but again, I tend to judge shoes on how comfortable they look.