DescentBB

"Good shoes are one of life's little compensations"

This is one of my own favourite sayings. Basically, good shoes make my life bearable. This because I tore my left foot off in 1994 in a 100 foot cliff dive after flying into a tree. (classic "Potts Fracture/Dislocation" - first described in medical literature in about 1840. Up until modern surgical techniques were perfected using screws and plates, the prognosis for this injury was a life on crutches!)

Anyway, despite the 8 hours of surgery required to re-attach my foot, it never healed properly, and to this day, I can't get my left knee over my big toe - a huge loss of flexion. Over the years since, the joint space has become degraded to zero and I have chronic osteo arthritis in that ankle. Luckily, the sever restriction of movement I have in that joint saves me from movement pain, but unluckily, not from impact pain. No running or jumping for me.

I've always liked nice shoes - and used to spend huge sums on them - back in the days when New Zealand charged 70% + 12.5% import duty on footwear. (But now there's only GST - 12.5% - and all NZ shoe manufacturers have gone out of business).

Back in the early nineties for example, I was paying $350 for Nike Air Jordans. And for Fcuk's sake - if anyone says anything about the god damn exchange rate, I swear - I'll burst a blood vessel. Exchange rate means nothing: shoes cost what shoes cost!

The prices of shoes have never really come down over the years, but earning power has gone up, and inflation has eaten the price down considerably.

Today, Nike Shox cost $290 - $400 depending on the model, and I have 5 pairs of Shox, 4 pairs of assorted Jordans, at least 10 pairs of Air soled Nike's and several pairs of Salomons, and other assorted ultra-comfortable shoes.

My question is this: how do YOU shop for shoes? Do you actually care at all? Just buy for looks? Or do you actually shop until you find a pair that fit well and feel great, as well as looking good?

Also, do you use "Formthotic" footbeds in your shoes? I have them for just about every pair of shoes I own - and they last for many years. These are the "home molded" variety - where you heat your oven to about 100 degrees C, turn the oven off, and then put your shoes (with formthotics inside 'em) in the oven for 10 minutes, and then stomp around wearing them done up tightly for another 10 minutes.

These things can turn an uncomfortable pair of shoes into something you'll happily wear every day without a problem. So if you have any sort of foot problem - then I thoroughly receommend them!

damn man, that sounds painful...! Must have been quite an ordeal; I can't imagine going through all that...

As for me, being a runner, of course I value shoes very highly. I like New Balance as I have had very good success with them over the years. I have never been injured in a pair of NBs, and they fit me very very well. last year I tried a new brand, Mizuno, which have been getting very good reviews, and while they felt great on my feet, they actually caused me to get Iliotibular band syndrome, a very painful and debilitating swelling of the band that runs down the outside of the leg. makes for running, and even walking and stair climbing, nearly impossible. So I'm back to NB.

I have always used the stock insoles (footbeds as you call them) even though most sports people and runners advocate buying separate insoles. I've never had any problems; I guess I just have resiliant feet (I've also only ever had one blister on my feet in my entire life)

I prefer walking around bearfoot when possible, but if I'm out and about I prefer a fairly high basketball shoe that supports the ankle some.

back when I was a cross-country runner, I cared. Now, I don't. I shop at Payless Shoes, and I sometimes glance around at Value Village to find something I like. It has to fit on my feet, and be good for walking around in for several hours.

Recently I just go up to the local shoe warehouses and pick up some Kenneth Coles. Label me a brand whore if you must, but they fit great. The way I wear them, though, they don't last too long, which is why I usually limit myself to around 70 bucks a pair.

Although to be honest the last pair of shoes I bought were Etnies. I needed something to work out in, and I find athletic shoes uncomfortable for the most part, so I picked up some skater shoes. Only cost me $55, and a friend of mind has had some that are around 7 years old, so hopefully they'll last.

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the shoes i buy can't be made by slave child labour. SO NIKE IS OUT.

i have some converse skatey kinda shoes, really simple black things.
and some invulnerable leather worker's steelcaps that i bought for my last job, these have become my favourite wear everywhere shoes coz they look so hardcore . but i wanna go one further and get some army surplus jungle shoes.

i AM lara croft haha.

Thanks Scorch. lemme tell ya, even pumped up with morphine (Which just makes you feel stupid, and doesn't do F-all for pain, really), and sucking back Entinox (Nitrous 80% oxygen 20%) as hard as I could, (Hyperventilating on the stuff!) having three guys swing on your foot trying to get it back on the end of your leg - that is pain I will take with me to my grave. And it took them four tries before they managed to relocate it.

It'd been nearly 3 hours since the crash, and my foot had no circulation, so they HAD to get the blood flowing, (Two out of three arteries to the foot had been severed) and couldn't give me a general anaesthetic for it because they assumed the hospital 200km away (This was at a resort town with no surgical unit) would operate on me that night...

You've probably never experienced the sort of pain where you literally can not get enough air in your lungs to scream loud enough to express the agony you're in. I know for sure now, that no amount of pain causes you to pass out. What happens is this; you don't even have a body any more, all you are is a small spec floating in a universe of searing agony. You can't even tell where it's coming from. That doesn't even really begin to describe it.

People who say you can't remember pain, either have never experienced it, or have very poor memories!

I used to think I was a ***** when it came to pain. But not any more. It's funny now, because I have a new base-line for pain. Unless I'm getting something serious done at the dentist (Like Root Canal) I won't take a local anaesthetic for it. I just sit there in the chair thinking "This aint pain, it's just a little tickly".

I talked to some women about it the other day, as they were talking about how painful delivering a baby is. I just said, "Well, if it hurt like I've been hurt, you'd NEVER have baby #2. Simple as that. NEVER!" They (of course) reckoned otherwise, but I know I'm right!

I hope and pray that you all never have to experience anything like that.

These days I'm not the suicidal maniac I once was on skis, motorcycles, cars and Paragliders, and I count my blessings every morning as I limp down the hall to the shower. It takes me about 10 minutes to free-up my ankle every morning.

I guess eventually I'll get an artificial ankle joint installed, but that won't be for at least 15 years, as I am "too young" ( ) to be fitted with one yet.

Mobi, does this mean we have permission to call you a gimp now?

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<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Arial" size="3">Originally posted by bash:
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more like bancount++ am i rite?

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Almost every consumer product I buy, I prefer function over form, and usually disregard brand (except when it comes to computer stuff...lol). So I really don't care who makes the shoe, as long as it's durable and comfortable (and looks ok) and for a specific purpose (be it hiking, running, "dirty-work," formal event, etc). And in-soles help make a lot of shoes more comfortable, not to mention averting those annoying "holes" you make over time.