The wrong pair of shoes can make your feet and legs ache, but the right pair, quickly become not only a favourite, but settle in like an old friend. My Born shoes are my old friends, and a product I would have a hard time living without.
For the most part, I buy the cheapest and very best, functional and decent shoe I can afford on my budget, but I happened to pass through Macys one time and came upon a shoe sale there. I decided to stop and look to see what they had to offer that day.
Due to a bad injury, that has long since healed, but left me with an ankle that can pop and trip me with no notice, I can’t wear high heals and to be honest, I’m glad I can’t.
I used to watch my mother in her high heeled shoes, graceful and elegant, but she was always coming home with painful, worn out feet. She also always seemed to have a pair of them at the shoe repair shop for snapped heels or a broken piece. It didn’t matter how expensive they had been at the onset either; it always happened to her.
Of course those shoes were fun to play dress up with, because they were pretty and I wanted to be like my mother. I still have a few pairs of her more glamorous high heeled shoes in my daughter’s dress up box.
My Born shoes are a step in progress for me. I would rather have comfortable feet so, I can walk a distance with no pain, than wear a fashion statement out of vanity. My Born shoes fit the bill for me and they have a certain kind of classic simple style to them too.
They slip on and off easily, but unlike other shoes I have owned, I don’t always automatically kick off my Born shoes, since they don’t cause me discomfort. My second pair of Born shoes are a slightly different design, but just as comfortable. I just haven’t worn them in as much since the brown colored ones look better with more clothing colours.
Because they are good quality leather, after I had worn them for awhile, they took on the shape of my foot even more and fit my feet like they were formed with me and not a manufactured mold.
Some shoes cause discomfort instantly and they never reach the state of usage or even last long enough to become comfortable. Part of that may be the materials they are made of do not have the quality of nice hand sewn leather, and part may be a poorly made shoe, but the Born shoes are very well made.
They are nice enough looking to wear with a number of pants styles. The style is unobtrusive enough to fit in, even when shoe fashions are constantly changing. I really don’t care if anyone likes them or not, I love them and I’m the one whose feet have to live with them.
Even as old as my Born shoes are, at about 8 or 10 years, I still get comments. Sometimes I even get longing glance, from some person wearing painful shoes, with that, ” I wish I was wearing your shoes…” look on their face, as I happily walk along leaving them stopping to reach down and rub a sore foot.
There was a children’s book I had called “The Shoes Fit for a King”, by Helen E. Bill. It told the story of a beautiful but vain pair of shoes, that tried every trick to try and get into the king’s chambers at the palace, where in their vanity they figured they belonged. They caused nothing but trouble and ended up worn and discoloured back at the cobbler’s shop, banished from the glory they sought. One day the king came into the cobblers shop looking for comfortable shoes that he could just be himself in and that didn’t hurt his feet. He spotted the worn shoes and bought them, not for glamorous royal events, but for private time.
That story is how I think of my Born shoes. They may not be the fanciest or the flashiest, but when it comes down to basics and my real life, my Born shoes are always what I come back to.
I polish and treat them on occasion, like a good pair of boots, but they have their own patina now, much like a good antique, that cannot be matched by anything but time, weather and wear. They were instantly comfortable and they still are. Of course I would rather not wear any shoes, but when I do need closed shoes, my Borns are my favorites.
