It's Mad Shoes Tuesday 04/29/03 MKF

[mollyig]

My kid sister recently purchased a pair of bright pink stilettos which caused me to laugh at the folly of youth. Until I remember some of the strange footwear that once graced my dainty (?) feet. Probably the most awful was a pair of shiny black leather ankle-length boots that had four straps with buckles across them, and really pointed toes. I thought I was so cool. [img:4e59a6c483]http://homepage.eircom.net/~mollyig/confused.gif[/img:4e59a6c483]

So, confession time Kittens - tell us all about your footwear fashion fiascoes.

[maudmac]

Well, I've heard it said that I walk around every day on two footwear fashion fiascoes right now. Hey, I like Birkenstocks, I don't care what anyone says.

When I was in the 7th grade or so, it was cool to wear two shoes of different colors. Must be Chuck Taylors. Bonus points for matching up the the color of the sock on one foot with the color of the shoe on the other. God, we were lame. My only consolation is that I never, ever wore jelly shoes.

But even if I had, I think the fact that it was the 80s absolves us all of our fashion fiascoes.

[rduffy24]

Well, I recently cleared out all my shoes. I had to dispose of my lovely green Doc Martins and several pairs of stilettos that Id had since the 80s. My favourite shoes were some 1950s and 1960s evening shoes I had they were stunning to look at and extremely uncomfortable to wear. I think my favourite footwear fashion fiasco was my thigh-high leather boots I had at university. Now some people have assured me that thigh-highs never go out of fashion but these were a dark tan colour, and even in 1981 that cant have been a good colour. They were very comfy and kept me warm though!

[Scout]

The shoes that stick out most in my mind were a pair of rubber thong shoes that I used to wear all summer long when I was younger. I loved wearing them but they always got me into trouble. The problem was they didnt handle watery surfaces very well.

On a trip to Disney World, we rented those little power boats, and while getting into one my foot slipped off the boat and I almost took a header into the Disney lake. Fortunately, the Disney staff member caught me and pulled me back into the boat. Then we were on vacation in Arizona and we stopped at a convenience store that had a leaking ice machine. When I walked in front of it, my thongs took me sailing about 20 feet. Luckily I didnt crack my head open on anything.

Those shoes had absolutely no tread. But being a stubborn child, I refused to take them off. Its amazing I survived my childhood.

Have a great day, all!

[voxanglsm]

Interesting topic. Okay, so I have a bad habit of getting a pair of shoes that I really like and wearing them all the time. Until they die. The worst were a pair of these light tan cloth boots I got from Wal-Mart that had lime green shoelaces and clear bottoms. I think I had them around fifth grade and wore them way past their expiration date. They were covered in black scuffs by the time I stopped wearing them. I think I ended up breaking the shoelaces and couldn't find others long enough.
At the moment, my favorite shoes are these brown slides with black thread stitching on the top in the shape of vines. They're quite nice. I've gotten plenty of compliments on them, even from guys, which was really surprising. But they're kind of dying. The rubber on the heels is pretty much all gone, so I'm sure they look funny now, but they're the most comfortable shoes I have, and when I have to walk a mile on campus, I want my comfy shoes.
Also, I admit to wearing jelly shoes. But I was young and had no say in the purchase of my shoes. I hope. And I think there was a year or two that I also might have done the different colored shoes. So there, I confessed it all.

[oneyedchicklet]

I think I have everyone beat on this topic. Everyone in my family (except for me) was big into bowling. Even though most of my childhood was spent in a bowling alley. Well, one of my mom friends who is a pro bowler opened up an alley and we went to help him set up. I was putting away the new shipment of rental shoes and I found a pair my size. I tried them on and they were so comfortable. I think they were red on one side and blue on the other with a number 6 on the back to show the size. He let me keep them and I wore them every day. I loved those shoes and I started a trend at my school. My friends would go bowling, rent shoes and not return them.
My favorite shoes to date are my wrestling shoes. No, I don't wrestle but they are so comfy. I wear them a lot. People always ask me if they are wrestling shoes and I say yes. I love them.
It must be a thing about sports shoes. But I don't make it a point to wear my softball cleats as everyday shoes.
Well, have a nice day everyone.

Love to All,
Barb

[unionjill30]

I don't really have any shoe fiasco per se. I've had some weird shoes, but instead of looking back and thinking "What the hell was I doing?" I look back and say "Wow, those were really kick ass!" Shoes are one of my huge obsessions. But to give some of my crazy shoe stories, here goes. There were the silver plastic Airwalk's I had in 7th and 8th grade. I cleaned them with Windex to give them that extra shine. In sixth grade I got a pair of navy blue Converse One Star's. I wore those things until there pretty much wasn't a thing left of them. I still have them. They're splotched in green paint and falling to pieces. They were sort of my inspiration for also buying the black One Star's as well as the hunter green One Star's the following year. Yes, I mixed and matched them as I think Holley mentioned above. I still have the black ones and I wear them religiously, interchanging with my navy blue Chuck Taylor's. Those things really lasted for some reason (almost 8 years). In high school I bought a pair of pink plastic Puma tennis shoes. I also cleaned those with Windex. I love those things. My sister has stolen them though and now they're buried in a closet somewhere in Ohio along with 25% of my wardrobe. The final pair of shoes I'll mention are my Dr. Marten boots with the British flag covering them. There's $170 well spent. I started a trend in high school with those. They're a big part of how I got my name. Wow, thinking about all of my shoes is making me kinda nostalgic. Good times.

Sarah

[BoredNow99]

I love trainers. I've got loads of pairs - far more than a person with no inclination to play sport should need in their lifetime.

Personally I don't think any of them would qualify as being called footwear fashion fiascoes, but there are those who beg to differ.

Most of them do so when I wear my Vegas runners, which were purchased in, surprisingly, Las Vegas.

Lord knows why. They're purple, they have silver bits and they pull on like a sock. What more can you ask for?

[Cicca]

Here I was thinking that I had no shoe crimes in my past...
I'd forgotten about jelly shoes.
I don't remember what colour mine were, but I remember the weird holes in them. And what's worse? I really wanted them because they were COOL.

Birkenstocks? I defy anyone to say that Birkenstocks are a crime! I wore my first pair for 8 years

[Zippy]

I too love trainers, I could give Willow a run for her money in a ' Who owns the most pairs of Adidas Gazelle's ' competion.

I do own other trainers too though, I have quite a few pairs of Sketchers, I almost bought a pair that were in the Britney Spears range, lucky for me I decided to check out Footlocker before shelling out my cash. Then there is my sporty trainers which are actually used for running round badminton courts.

Worst pair of shoes, mmm I used to have some novelty slippers which looked like ladybirds & some wellies with little frog features but I was 5.

[Nix42]

Purple Desert Boots, I blame it on the 80s, and am saying no more

[willothewisps82]

I had jelly sandals when I was little. They were purple-clear and glittery! I remember they hurt like hell. I'm not ashamed of them though. I would wear them now if they still had them and they weren't painful torture devices.

[voxanglsm]

Okay, I just remembered something. Did anyone else have those shoes that a little thing in the back where lights would go on and off as you walked? I'm not really sure if I'm really embarassed about having owned a pair or not, but reading over some of these made me remember that fad.

Oh, and unionjill- I used to have a pair of Doc Martens with flowers all over them. They were pretty cool, but they didn't quite match with anything. I think my mom has them now.

[mscheckmate]

My shoe crime? Spike heels.

A few years ago, I my guitarist brother-in-law and I did a recital in a store. It was for a "First Night" celebration; part of my hometown was closed down for New Year's Eve, and various musicians gave performances all over town, in non-traditional venues like fire stations, banks, and breweries. The store owner had put in a new wooden stage just for the event. So, we were onstage setting up our stuff, checking the lights and all, running the intro for one of the tangos we were going to play, and I realized that my spike heels were leaving dents all over the stage. Really all over, because I tend to walk around a lot when I play. I ended up kicking off the spikes and playing shoeless. When I explained to the audience why I had 86'd the shoes, they laughed. The store owner looked kind of pained, though.

The woman who built my house wore spike heels constantly. She was a fairly big woman, and various sections of my wood floors are dented. Judging by the location of the dents, she spent very little time in the kitchen, and a hell of a lot of time fixing her make-up.