My shoes are my friends
I was always fascinated with shoes. I am not talking about some strange erotic fetish. I simply noticed that for different people shoes mean different things. For some it is just a means to protect their feet, for others it is a fashion statement or a collectable item. Women go crazy about shoes, they hoard them like Smaug hoards dwarven gold. Men love to buy shoes as a status symbol, like shiny watches and fast cars. There are shoes that go out of fashion every season and shoes that become classic and stay with us forever. There are famous and brilliant designers who create shoes as work of art, and athletic super stars who slap their names on them to entice and tantalise us into buying into their world. There are shoes that give comfort and shoes that destroy your feet. There are shoes for every taste, every person and every occasion. But what do your shoes mean to you?
I have a very long and eventful history with shoes, and by that I mean that through my life my attitude and connection to my shoes changed dramatically. My first vivid memory from my childhood was staring at my big toes sticking out of my badly worn sneakers. You see, I have very big, big toes. All my life they fought against the oppression of shoes, and, when my feet were still growing, they usually won. I grew up in Ukraine, and for a very short time in USSR. Back then shoes did not mean much to me, they were a thing I put on my feet to protect my soles and allow me to kick a ball without bruising my very big, big toes. For me shoes were a simple thing, I did not know about makers such as Nike or Adidas, I did not care how much shoes cost and definitely never gave a hoot about how they look.
I always had two pairs of shoes, one for summer and one for the winter. The summer shoes were usually sneakers and winter shoes a sturdy boot. Funny thing that I do not remember ever buying a new pair of shoes when I was living in Ukraine, and I am not sure if I ever got a new pair of sneakers. I grew up in a happy but poor family and there were other priorities where money went. I usually got my shoes from older cousins, family friends or my older sister. I once wore a nice pair of pink sneakers a tad too big for a whole summer, simply because that was all I was given. But I did not care, as long as I could kick a ball and climb a tree. Do these sneakers cover at least sixty percent of my feet? If yes, then they are still good in my book.
Another thing I remember from my childhood is repairing shoes. Just like an old, trusty car, we used them as long as there was a way to repair them. In the early nineties we used rubber glue produced for us by some unknown factory in USSR, which probably manufactured glue and bio-weapons on a same conveyor belt. I still remember the strong stench of it, strangely unpleasing but yet enticing, like car oil or acetone. In the evening, when I do not need my shoes as I only had one pair, I would squeeze the glue out of a metallic tube and feed it to my hungry looking sneakers, filling gaps between sole and fake leather. Then put something heavy, usually my father’s exercise weight, on it and leave it until the next morning. When I woke up, I would have functional shoes again. Later USSR glue disappeared, as did the whole country, and we got cyanoacrylate, or in human speech the superglue, as a replacement. Sadly, it was not as strong and did not smell as exciting, but it was fun gluing my fingers together and then trying to rip them apart.
In the summer of 1998 my family moved to always sunny Australia. It was here I found out about Nike, and not just Nike, but basketball Nike’s sneakers, and not just basketball Nike’s sneakers, but the Air Jordans. That was when my whole attitude towards shoes changed, that was love at first sight. Their beautiful curves, soft soles, high ankles, an incredible comfort, a cool factor and most unmatched sex appeal. I still thought that all a man needed was one pair of shoes in his life and that is why I literally grew up in Jordans. I wore them everywhere and anytime, to play basketball, football, go to parties, birthdays, night clubs, even to the beach. I wore them when it was hot, cold or wet. It was like walking on a cloud and looking cool at the same time. I would wear Jordans until they would fall apart on my feet and then get a new pair of Jordans, always the same style, always in red and black. And because Nike make sturdy shoes, my parents were happy to pay a little extra for them, as I wore one pair for a long time. It even took me forever to throw an old pair of Jordans away, as I would get so attached to them. I would keep my sneakers in my overfilled closet until my parents would force me to chuck them into a rubbish bin.
As a young man I also learnt about brand loyalty and, because I loved Jordans, I would only ever consider Nike sneakers. It stuck with me for years, until I was in my mid-twenties. I had two rules about my shoes, they have to be Nike and I can only have one pair at a time. When for the first time I saw that people could have more than one pair of shoes, I was appalled. Why do they need so many shoes? What are they going to do with it? How can they afford so many? Why are they not wearing Nike? Then I grew older and my priorities slowly adjusted. I could not wear huge Jordans anymore, and to tell you the truth, I could not afford them, as good Jordans cost about an arm and a leg. I bought a car, a place to live, and all that came with a large pile of bills and the shoe bill was not a priority. At first I bought simple basketball sneakers from Nike, then I switched to walking shoes and then, one fateful day, I bought Adidas. I felt awful, like I was betraying an old friend, but those shoes were comfortable and cheap, and mostly important, practical. That day my shoe game changed forever.
Today I have four pairs of shoes, there are everyday Nike’s, Adidas and Skechers. I do not care how my shoes look or who makes them. I just care that they are affordable, sturdy and comfortable. I still admire Jordans when I visit fancy sneakers stores, I pick them up, drool over them for some time, check the price tag and put them back. One day I will buy a pair, like those Air Jordan 1, one day. But for now my shoes mean comfort to me, that is all, that is all that I need from them.
