Why write about shoes?
I pondered this question when I was
asked to be a regular contributor to Barking Dog Shoes. At first, it
seemed that this genre – let’s call it “shoe writing” --
could be a bit fluffy and inconsequential. But as I thought about
it, I realized that far from being fluff, the topic of shoes and
their ubiquitous presence in our lives is more complex and
interesting than we might acknowledge. Unless you live in Maui,
footwear is a part of everything you do, almost as present as your
personality. Nearly every story of our lives involves shoes. And
shoes share many similarities with life’s events; we have
favorites, and we have ones that are the product of bad judgment.
There are those we wish could last forever, and ones that brought us
only discomfort. There are some that weren’t worth the cost, and
ones that were more useful than we thought they’d be. The shoes we
wear affect our level of comfort, our sense of style, our perception
of fitting in with a group (or being an outsider), our feeling of
protection or vulnerability. And for some reason I would love some
scientist to explain, shoes leave an impression almost like the
well-documented “scent memory” (where a whiff of some smell can
bring back vivid, sometimes long-repressed memories.)
I remember being a preschooler and
shopping at Montgomery Ward for plaid sneakers with rounded,
rubber-covered toes. Thinking of them takes me right back to the
lighting, the smell, and the colors of the shoe boxes from this
seemingly routine event. I also recall the glorious feeling of
wearing (what I perceived to be) my first pair of “high heels”
when I was about six. They were patent leather mary janes which had a
small stacked heel, rather than the flat leather or rubber soles of
all my previous shoes. I delighted in the clicking sound they made on
hard floors, and learned to walk in a way that would maximize this
effect on the terrazzo floors of my elementary school. There were
white side-zip boots, soft leather wedges, Indian moccasins, Thom
McAn Sunbackers, Candie’s slides, Polar Boots, light blue Chuck
Taylors, Rockport hikers -- I could go on for…well, I won’t tell
you how many years and how many pairs of shoes. But you could
probably compile a similar list. So though I can’t explain it, I
now understand that whether practical or fashionable, shoes will
always be somewhat enigmatic…and yes, worth writing about.
By Barking Dog Shoes contributor, Beth B.
