Tennis Shoe Blues

As a long time wearer of shoes, I've both wore and worn out many pairs since my earliest memories of protective foot gear. Dress shoes, work shoes, sandals, flip flops, leather shoes and cloth shoes, I've worn them all. I distinctly remember an early pair of tennis shoes that practically fell apart the first day I wore them, much to my mother's displeasure. I don't know which color came first, but one day the shoes were red and the replacement shoes blue the next. It's too bad I can't remember the brand, because I have a feeling that particular company may still be producing bad tennis shoes.

Under normal conditions, I expect a new pair of tennis shoes to give me at least a year of first class, looking good service. Remember, I've worked as a nurse and as a gunsmith and both professions require a lot of time standing, walking and occasionally running. After the looking good period is past, I might get another year or so of looking rougher but still serviceable use. The next stage is the suitable only for mowing the lawn, working on cars and digging in the garden shoes. Finally, the demise of the shoe comes when a hole appears that either lets my socks get too dirty or allows injury to my foot. Either incident is unforgivable. The poor, disgraced shoe is stripped of its laces like a court martialed soldier and dumped unceremoniously into the trash. The laces are relegated to the junk drawer for emergency use. You never can tell when a used lace will be needed to save the day. It hasn't happened yet, but I'm prepared, nonetheless. With the current tennis shoe failure rate, should hoards of zombies, enemy soldiers, or worse, Twilight fans arrive, I'll have enough laces to tie them all up.

For me, this has been a terrible time for shoes. My last three pair have been poorly made pieces of dubious material quality and inferior design. The glossy white finish on the leather of the Nike shoes peeled like an onion skin, revealing a rough and apparently inferior leather beneath. The same thing happened with a pair of Adidas tennis shoes. I was so disgusted I violated my own rule against plastic shoes and bought a pair of cheapie Chinese made "Victory" shoes constructed of all man-made materials. That was a big mistake. In just a few months, the sides of the Victory shoes were cracking where the uppers meet the lowers. Not only have I had to buy three pairs of work shoes in less than a year, I'll more than likely have to buy a fourth pair.

Buying shoes these days is a lot like shopping at a used car lot. No matter what I buy, I feel like I'm being ripped off. since many of the so called top brands are made in the same places, I don't understand why the prices are so different. The Nike and Adidas shoes lasted no longer than some of the no name brands at Walmart or Kmart. Of course, since we're talking tennis shoes, I don't think any of them are worth more than $20 a pair. After all, we're talking about shoes made mostly of man made materials and assembled overseas, not fine Italian leather assembled by master craftsmen. Why should any Chinese shoe be worth $150 and up? In my opinion, there's not a tennis shoe made worth that much money, at least not of any I've tried so far.

Shoemakers, keep your fancy swooshes and your athletic endorsements and give me two things. I want a good shoe at a good price. Both are reasonable requests, so get busy. I'll soon be searching for the next pair of protective covers for my feet.