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K-mart and Payless Shoes are no longer in business here. I haven't found any acceptable* shoes at Target or Walmart or Kohl's lately. My everyday pair of shoes has been getting increasingly worn out. I put Shoe Goo on the worn out parts of the soles to make them last longer, but the Shoe Goo comes off after a while.
Shoe Carnival, a store I hadn't been to before, sent me an ad. It didn't say where they're located (I've noticed that with paper ads before; what's up with that??); I had to look it up. I stopped by their closest store after work yesterday. Browsing the aisles, none of the shoes struck my fancy, but I made note of a few possibilities to come back to if I didn't find anything better in the rest of the store.
In the back corner of the store, I found a pair that did strike my fancy - black & grey with bright red accents. But it wasn't available in my size. I found a few others that looked good, met most of my criteria, and were the right size. Then I saw that this whole section of shoes was on sale for $20 or $30 dollars each pair. Yes! I ended up getting 3 different pairs. None of them are a perfect replacement for my current shoes (2 have mesh on top, not waterproof. 1 has a non-mesh fabric; TBD how waterproof it is), but they'll keep me going a while longer.
*My criteria for acceptable shoes:
Athletic style; must be comfortable on my feet.
No white rubber on the bottom; that will get dirty-looking too easily.
No real leather; synthetic is fine. The shoes' material must be specifically labelled. (This rules out Nike and New Balance and several other brands).
No high(ish) heels; I find them uncomfortable to walk in.
Must have at least some contoured arch support inside.
Should be mostly water-proof - not having only mesh fabric across the toes like so most athletic shoes nowadays have. Should have thick enough rubber soles so that if I step in a shallow puddle, the water won't soak into the shoes.
Not having skid-resistant/work-style soles with the very narrow grooves in them; they are too hard to clean out after stepping in gunk.
Must look good to me.
This morning while re-lacing a shoe, it occurred to me how hard it would be for a machine to do that. I wondered if there are people whose only job it is, to lace up new shoes. Apparently there must be.
https://qz.com/966882/robots-cant-lace-shoes-so-sneaker-production-cant-be-fully-automated-just-yet/
World’s First Automated Shoe Lacing Machine (posted Sep 26, 2017):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oeXw3awuaM
The shoes in this video have solid white eyelets; most shoes don't so they would be harder for a machine to handle.
Shoe Carnival, a store I hadn't been to before, sent me an ad. It didn't say where they're located (I've noticed that with paper ads before; what's up with that??); I had to look it up. I stopped by their closest store after work yesterday. Browsing the aisles, none of the shoes struck my fancy, but I made note of a few possibilities to come back to if I didn't find anything better in the rest of the store.
In the back corner of the store, I found a pair that did strike my fancy - black & grey with bright red accents. But it wasn't available in my size. I found a few others that looked good, met most of my criteria, and were the right size. Then I saw that this whole section of shoes was on sale for $20 or $30 dollars each pair. Yes! I ended up getting 3 different pairs. None of them are a perfect replacement for my current shoes (2 have mesh on top, not waterproof. 1 has a non-mesh fabric; TBD how waterproof it is), but they'll keep me going a while longer.
*My criteria for acceptable shoes:
Athletic style; must be comfortable on my feet.
No white rubber on the bottom; that will get dirty-looking too easily.
No real leather; synthetic is fine. The shoes' material must be specifically labelled. (This rules out Nike and New Balance and several other brands).
No high(ish) heels; I find them uncomfortable to walk in.
Must have at least some contoured arch support inside.
Should be mostly water-proof - not having only mesh fabric across the toes like so most athletic shoes nowadays have. Should have thick enough rubber soles so that if I step in a shallow puddle, the water won't soak into the shoes.
Not having skid-resistant/work-style soles with the very narrow grooves in them; they are too hard to clean out after stepping in gunk.
Must look good to me.
This morning while re-lacing a shoe, it occurred to me how hard it would be for a machine to do that. I wondered if there are people whose only job it is, to lace up new shoes. Apparently there must be.
https://qz.com/966882/robots-cant-lace-shoes-so-sneaker-production-cant-be-fully-automated-just-yet/
World’s First Automated Shoe Lacing Machine (posted Sep 26, 2017):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oeXw3awuaM
The shoes in this video have solid white eyelets; most shoes don't so they would be harder for a machine to handle.