I’m flat footed, and had actually started leaning towards shoes with more arch support (like New Balance), so I was surprised how comfortable these shoes were for me. There’s no arch support, just a flat sole with a heel.
This also happened to be not too long after Kiya got his awesome kicks for his wedding too, so I guess I had shoes on my mind.
When I’d wear my shoes, I was kind of reminded of my Dad and his boot collection. As a kid, I never got it. Hell as a grown up I never really got it either, but all of a sudden I really felt like getting a pair of boots. Something like what my father would wear.
So I started looking in local stores, but it’s nearly impossible to find a boot in the Bay larger than size 9.5! I even went into a few latino boot stores on Mission, where the only thing they sold were boots, and they didn’t even carry 9.5’s. They only had a few 9’s. This was a boot store… full of fucking boots, but not anything even close to a size 12.
Last weekend, Shannon and I went to LA for the Winnies award show. The day after the event we hit Hollywood hard in search of a pair of size 12’s, but had no success after a full day of shopping.
On the drive back to the Bay, Shan and I almost ran out of gas on a 20 mile stretch of mountainous highway. As our gas gage was flashing empty we made it to the town of Lebec for a refill.
As we pulled in to the gas station, I immediately recognized the town as one of the stops on the Mediocre Tour (with Beefy, MC Router, and myself earlier this year). I remembered a fantastic antique mall and beg Shannon to let me check it out.
Right as I stepped into Antiques on the Grapevine I saw two pairs of size 12 boots for only $25 each. I tried them both on, and fell in love with the light tan pair on the left.
Months of shopping in SF, LA, and online, and I stumble upon an ideal pair at an exit in the middle of nowhere.
So now I’m getting adjusted to wearing boots, and really enjoying it. They aren’t the keenest pair in the world, but until I can afford a custom made pair, they’ll totally do.
Speaking of Kiya’s pair of Flathead shoes, I’m thinking about taking my boots to a cobbler to see if I can get that layered look done to the sole of my boots. I really dig that leather/wood/leather/wood look on his.
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