1

This completely cracks me up. I wrote about my retail experience, it didn't even occur to me that I'd be inundated with recommendations for shoes!

I did get a good number of people commiserating with me, telling me how everything's locked behind glass at the chain drugstores, how online shopping is better, but those e-mails were dwarfed by those recommending shoes. With ATTITUDE!

I guess I didn't make it clear enough... I wanted to buy Skechers because they're slip-ons and cheap. Skechers is a mid-level brand at best.

As for top of the line...

Have you been to a Nike store recently? Nike, and now all its competitors, makes a shoe for every activity. Literally. A shoe for the missionary position and a shoe for doggy. Really, it's that extreme.

As for which one you should buy...

Most people default to a running shoe, because of its snazzy looks and thick foam sole. But it might be the completely wrong shoe for the activity they're doing.

Now in the old days, in the seventies, when Nike started, running shoes were just about all they sold. They eventually got into tennis, to compete with the Adidas Stan Smith, but...if you weren't buying Chuck Taylors, you purchased a running shoe.

And Nike eclipsed Adidas and its perennial number two, Puma.

The Oregon company trumpeted breakthroughs. First, the waffle sole...which were actually designed using a waffle iron...and then air cushioning.

And then Nikes, et al, became everyday footwear and the market exploded.

Kind of like jeans. We couldn't even wear them to school. You definitely didn't wear them in restaurants. So there were the usual brands...Levi's, Wrangler and Lee were the big three.

But as jeans crept into everyday life, the upscale designer jean took hold. To the point where today there are a plethora of jeans styles available. Skin tight, wide...it's hard to keep track of what's in fashion.

As people started to wear athletic footwear everywhere, new brands got into the game, like L.A. Gear, never mind the amplification of Reebok's business, and the majors doubled-down. Shoes were a fashion item, but now with all the revenue, traditional players could grow their portfolio.

So...

I always bought the top of the line Nike. Period. It was a running shoe and I wore them 24/7. I had Adidas Roms back in the early seventies... But they kind of proved the point. With a gum sole, if you used them on the tennis court, they wore out very quickly.

And even a pair of Puma banana shoes. Be the first on your block, I was!

And before that, I had a pair of Tigers, now called ASICS, when NO ONE could buy them, they were exotic.

But after a number of pairs of top of the line Nike running shoes, "Consumer Reports" gave a rave review to Brooks, with its varus wedge.

And then... "Consumer Reports" went deep, acknowledged what the companies were doing, making so many different models for so many different uses, and they pointed out which shoe was the correct for each use, and told you which shoe to buy in that category.

One big point they made is that if you are walking, do not buy a running shoe. A running shoe has a higher heel. And, a walking shoe needs to have a stiffer sole, because with running and walking you strike the pavement differently.

And for walking, which was my main use, they pointed to this one specific Nike.

But being Nike, they updated that shoe every year, with different tech innovations. And I bought them and...then they got cheap and then they stopped making them, so...

Going back to "Consumer Reports," doing more research on the now available internet, it was declared by the experts that the definitive walking shoe was the New Balance 928. And I bought them.

They are not expensive, but they're not cheap either. Right now they retail for $159.99 and it's hard to get a discount.

Presently, it's the 928v3. That's right, the third version of the same model, and I've had all three. The second one was a bit narrow, but the third is back to the standard. And unlike Nikes, New Balance shoes do not fall apart. Then again, because of this you may not realize that the foam in the sole is compressed and therefore you need a new pair. I realized this was true when I went to Bottle Rock with an old pair, figuring they'd get dirty, and then donned a new pair thereafter. Night and day! As a matter of fact, I just bought a brand new pair of 928v3's for the same excursion as the Skechers. But unlike the Skechers, you can't slip them off and on, not without reaching down and holding the heel open.

So...

2

Now if you ride the lift and ask your companion how they like their skis, they will universally tell you THEY LOVE THEM! I have never ever found this rule to be broken. Literally every person I've ever asked about their skis testifies, emphatically.

But I figured out the answer back in the sixties... THEY PAID FOR THEM! Furthermore, they probably haven't been on anything else. And believe me, every ski has a different character.

I checked when I was in Vail, I've got eleven pairs of skis. So when I'm riding the lift and someone asks me about what I'm on, I give them a full-blown review, which is usually more information than they want. But believe me, there is no ski that is great in everything. As a matter of fact, I've got a pair that are bad on the groomers, too stiff for the bumps, but in corn snow, THEY'RE GENIUS!

And skis make a huge difference. Not that most people know, because they've only skied on one or two brands at most.

Probably the most popular ski these days is the Nordica Enforcer, which I consider to be blah. As a matter of fact, the shop guy I mentioned yesterday refused to sell them because they were so mediocre. Ultimately, he stocked a few so if someone came in he could say he carried them, but he usually steered them into a Stockli or K2.

The Nordica Enforcer is stiff and dead. Two layers of titanal (not titanium, just a specific kind of aluminum alloy). You can't out-ski them. Meaning no matter how fast you go, they won't start to flop around. Concomitantly, with said stiffness they're much harder to turn and much less playful than the competition, and the stiffness in the bumps... An expert skier can ski on anything, but why do all that work? I like a more lively ski.

Which is all to say most people e-mailing about their shoe of choice haven't done a ton of research, they haven't owned every brand, they just bought what's on their feet and THEY LOVE THEM!

Forget getting the right shoe for the right use. They look good. They're fashionable. They're HIP!

Like ON shoes. You know, the ones with the soles with the cut-outs, they're everywhere. They are not cheap, but they are ubiquitous. And they are good shoes. And they make a few models. But are you using the right shoe for your activity? I doubt it!

And then there are the HOKAs. The hip shoe before the Ons. Good shoes. Famous for their thick foam cushioning and flashy colors. But almost everybody I see in HOKAs is wearing a running shoe. And at this point, HOKA does make a walking shoe:

https://www.hoka.com/en/us/mens-walking/

(They make women's walking shoes too.)

But these are not the ones with the flashiest of colors. Those are the running shoes, which everybody buys, because they like the look. Fashion.

But people bought them and therefore they're the best, THEY LIKE THEM!

And then there are the kiziks. I can't tell you how many people e-mailed me about the kiziks, because like the Skechers (some Skechers, not all), they are truly hands-free slip-ons, which the Ons and HOKAs are not... You may be able to slip into them, but compared to a Skecher or kizik...

But I said in my piece I was looking for a mid-level shoe. For a specific purpose. Like I said above, I just bought a new pair of New Balance 928v3s for $159.99. The Kiziks you want cost up to $200 a pair. And the dirty little secret is as easy as they might be to get on, their forte is not cushioning. They do sell two sub-hundred dollar shoes, but those are truly casual items, you don't want to do a lot of walking in them. Once again, you CAN! They're just not the best tool for the job.

Which brings me back to the Skechers.

3

Arch Fit.

What is that about. It's a stabilization shoe. Sounds like something your podiatrist would recommend, but...are you a pronator?

Most people don't know. But a pronator... Go to a store, just by looking at the soles of your shoes a qualified salesman can tell you. To make it simple, very simple, you're rolling off your big toe, which is probably why your feet hurt!

But with a stabilization shoe...

I found this out by accident. Because the top of the line Nike running shoes back in the nineties were all stabilization shoes. They embedded a piece of plastic in the sole to hold your foot straight, a little cage. And they WORKED!

Which was why I was interested in the Skecher Arch Fit shoes. Because I am a pronator and it makes a difference.

So after writing my screed yesterday I went to the Skechers site and...

It was incomprehensible.

I wanted a cushiony shoe with Arch Fit. All those people you see walking in those thick foam-soled shoes, almost none of them have stabilization, they're made for running, not walking, and therefore your ankle can roll and you can fall and...

The Skechers site has a shoe finder. But the problem is the results it generates are either too broad or too narrow. And it will also populate the results with shoes that don't fit your criteria... They want you to buy SOMETHING, they don't want you to leave their site empty-handed.

But I just couldn't figure it out, I kept changing the criteria and that's when I saw anything you bought on the site was 20% off. And Skechers are cheap to begin with. Now in the store there was no discount...

But I didn't want to buy them directly from Skechers, how long would it take to get them? I use Amazon Prime, and get things sometimes the same day, usually only a day or two later. But I didn't want to pay full price.

And that's when I found out NO ONE sells Skechers for full price online, EVERYBODY gives you a discount! But, once again, what model to buy.

It's a whole new set of criteria on Amazon, and I'm completely flummoxed and about to give up when I stumble upon what seems to be the perfect thing. The Men's Go Walk Arch Fit 2.0-Grand. They were selling like hotcakes, which is a good sign. Over a hundred a month, with 722 reviews.

You want the one everybody else does. It's tried and true.

And I put them in my cart, but...

There were two other walking shoes, with many fewer sales, what about them?

I'm thorough, like I told you.

So I went back to the Skechers site. On the Skechers site, the shoes had almost the identical descriptions, I could not figure out the difference.

So...

It was time to Google. And sometimes this works, and sometimes it does not. I asked "Skechers Go Walk Arch Fit 2.0 Grand or Simplicity."

And lo and behold, AI came up with a lengthy answer. And everything was identical until the very bottom. You can adjust the laces with the Simplicity, you can't with the Grand!

What are the odds the store clerk knew this?

ZERO!

I won't even trouble you with the width issue... Not only do you not want to buy wide if you're medium, but you don't want a relaxed fit if you want to walk in them. That's right, it's that complicated.

So I bought the Simplicity. And what did this purchase cost me?

Before tax?

$73.50. 30% off the list price of $105.00.

As you can see, these shoes are not even half the price of the ones everybody was e-mailing me about. And unlike them, these are cheap shoes that are machine washable... And they've got stability and good cushioning and you can SLIP THEM ON!

Which is why I was looking at Skechers to begin with!


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