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Ah MDW - my old neighborhood - off the NE corner of the runways! Boots - Inferno from Raye (top)/Sorbern (bottom w/black & white skirt). Thanks for the vote!

Loving those boots and jeans! What a great outfit! Those boots get my vote for sure, what brand are they?

Midway this time

From Midway or O'hare? Love those boots!

So here is my first of many to come! Boots by Aldo, dress is Lululemon Define, wristlet is Guess My usual Chicago to Tampa trip. Kinda bummed, only 2 comments about my boots, both in the TSA line, no negative comments. Look forward to talking with people. Will post some more pics soon!

So, if they are truly branded 'Crocks', they are not made by 'Crocs' - but probably someone's idea of passing-off as a 'Crocs' product.

I am not surprised by your initial findings. As the width/diameter of a heel top piece doubles, its area quadruples and the pressure exerted for a given weight of wearer reduces to one-quarter of the original. Allowing for 'rocking' and other differences, a five-fold increase in durability sounds about right. But of course one's gait and the composition of the top-piece will likely make a lot of difference to overall longevity. Your more detailed findings should be interesting - some PhD material there if the University of Life is receptive.

As a update, after reading these posts, I took a second careful look again at this pair last night. There is a small label fastened to the tongue showing that they were made in Vietnam, size “11W.” And the only other printing on th shoes is the Crocks label and the remark “Duel Comfort.” The brand name “Crocks”is embedded into the sole. The overall appearance kinda resembles “Chuck-a boots.” I decided,while getting dressed this morning, to wear them to church. I usually wear a less obvious pair of girls shoes every Sunday. My black or brown Nine West Penny Loafers with 1 1/2 inch heels, for example (nothing as stylish or flamboyant as Mlroseplant ). No problem during the service and none at the restaurant where I ate Sunday dinner afterwards. I believe that I am going to enjoy this pair,

Banks branches are disappearing in Britain pretty quickly too - a bit like stilettos

Or....., he may be LGHDTV brigade, making a political statement. Ironically these days with DEI infesting everything as a man you will probably have more success getting a job when wearing a skirt then a pair of trousers. I've seem two women wearing stiletto heels this past month in the supermarket. Both were older women. You can still go to a bank? An actual physical bank to get money in person? 😲 Banks have all but disappeared from the high streets here in the Netherlands. I live in the 8th biggest city and I am not even sure any of our banks still has a office here.

I have an update about the banking gal. It would appear that she's for real. I went in there with my son to deposit money he'd earned from mowing grass. This was on a Friday afternoon, and I'd just gotten home from work, and was not dressed up at all. I think I had on a t-shirt and jeans with my sort of house slipper style thong wedges, about 3". While we were waiting, the High Heeled One appeared again. This time, she was wearing single sole D'Orsay pumps that slightly exceeded 4 inches in height. They were not stilettos, but they were slim (not block) heels. She had on dress pants and a nice blouse, no jacket. Again, even though I was technically wearing "heels," I did not feel I was up to snuff enough to make any sort of comment. Next time I go to the bank, I shall have to make sure I'm better dressed. This gets me all nostalgic for the days when we used to get paper checks and had to go to the bank at least every Friday. No, not really.

Interesting talk about red shoes. I only own black boots, but I just counted, and I have 5 pairs of red shoes. They don't get a ton of wear, but as you can see from last week's photos, they do get some. The two pair that get the least wear are the most casual shoes of the bunch. Go figure. I am in the process of doing a semi-scientific durability test on my heels, but I can tell you already that stiletto tips just don't last very long, even with my careful stepping and light weight. A heel with twice the diameter of a stiletto will last at least 5x as long, all other things being equal. In my personal experience. Your mileage may vary.

Crocs actually do make some regular looking shoes (not many). I've never considered them special enough to warrant much of my attention. I have never seen an oxford style from them, I am curious.

If they were truly labelled 'Crocks', they are not going to be from the same source as 'Crocs'. But I see that there are some wedges from 'Crocs'.

A few months ago I was making small talk with one of the excutives. She always compares heels with me. I had a pair of blue faux suede impo short sitlettos on (3.6 inch) and she said she wish she could find a blue boot as well. I told her that years ago when I got these, the style also came in black and red, but I only bought the black. Her responce, "Why didn't you get the red?" I have three heels in red, two slitghty different styles of Jessica Simpson red suede stiletto booties (1.5 platform, 5.5+ heel) and a burgany Nine West leather knee high booties with a stiletto-ist 3.9 inch heels. I have to pick the time and place to wear them, but I do wear them.

The red boots are attractive and very eye catching too a point where I don’t think, if they were mine, that I would wear them out and about in public. I really like them. But, I am conservative when it comes to wearing my heels in public and these boots, in my opinion, would draw more attention than I would want. There isn’t any way you could convince anyone that they weren’t created for women’s wear.

I'm constantly replacing tips, be happy to help

I love wearing my stiletto boots, but beat up the heels fairly quickly...

I have vowed many times that I would never purchase a pair of “Crocks.” I can not imagine anything more hideous to put on your feet. However, yesterday I was shopping at one of our local clothing stores and happened to see a pair of attractive shoes that appealed to me. Black, faux suede, lace up, oxfords with an almost 4” wedge heel. After carefully looking them over, I discovered they were brand named “Crocks.” I bought them. I wore them to supper last night. They are the most comfortable and easy to wear shoes in my collection. While they are more suited for fall and winter wear, I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t get a lot of wear during his summer .

The public health issue that made us all stay home for a long while and quit caring much about fashion. It is my habit to name it somewhat cryptically in order to avoid stupid political exchanges. I won't even call them arguments. I was referring to dysentery, of course. 😛

I know what you mean about stilettos. I’ve a couple pair of stiletto boots that I wish I could walk fluently in but my natural aesthetic taste is always fit block heels and so I always choose those whenever I decide to wear heels

Thank you for sharing your answers to my curiosity. As far as answering your inquirie, I could write a book explaining how I (we) managed this. The short answer is we used the same technique most parents use to keep their “private and personal lives” separate from their “parenting” lives and duties. I kept my female items mixed with my wife’s. My shoes boxes were on the shelf beside hers and we were the only ones that knew which were mine and which were hers. The first ten years after our graduation from college I spent in the military. Our three children were all in grade school. Between my work and family activities, I didn’t have much time by myself. I did, however, indulge in slipping into a delicious pair of my favorite heels whenever I had time alone. The second part of your question, one that naturally follows, is “How successful were we. Did our kids know or ever find out about my heels? Truly I really don’t know. Any parent knows how curious a child can be. And even more so when there are brothers and sisters collectively involved. Leave it to say that as of this moment, neither my son or either of my daughters has ever let on that they are aware of me and my girls shoes. Fortunately, for those of us that exclusively wear our “girls shoes” openly, over the years there have been many styles originally sold on the women’s side that have “morfed” into styles worn by both men and women and that are still featured as women’s styles, as well. Penny Loaf an several styles of sandals for example. Sometimes the only distinguishing feature denoting the intended gender is the thickness or shape of the heel. Which, in any case, will be overlooked in any casual observation.

Melrose: can you please clarify what the 'public health issue' refers to, and its impact Is this to do with Covid?

Thanks guys! They kind of give off a "riding boot vibe", love the tall shafts, fit my chicken legs pretty well. Yeah, so frustrating not to be able to navigate the red boots with confidence and authority. Someday perhaps. Looking forward to meeting up soon in NC, giving both pairs a proper analysis! Don

Ok, fair enough. 1) The driveway has become a thing now, I guess. It has largely replaced the drainpipe that @Puffer has admired for so many years. I suppose I could turn 90º and have the background be the deck and the back yard, but that is often littered with cast-off motorcycle parts and other junk like used oil bottles. I probably wouldn't take any pictures at all, except for this group. The driveway is a compromise between decent photo quality and spending lots of time to grab a few snapshots. My wife used to make me go to the park almost every Sunday after church and take photos of her there, which she would then post on social media. For a number of reasons, this stopped after our public health issue reared its ugly head. But I still haven't answered your question. Our neighborhood is fairly static. Typically, houses only come up for sale after a death. Therefore, my neighbors are long familiar with me, and don't question why I have a tripod set up in the driveway. They probably know. Frankly, it's still a little embarrassing to think about a 56 year old man taking selfies, but ah well. 2) As I alluded to earlier, my wife is a bit of a fashionista, or used to be. For reasons I won't get into, that is largely no longer the case. Sometime around 2018 or 2019, I got to a point I wanted to get to, as far as pushing my fashion limits, and have pretty much stayed there. Of course, the public health issue changed everything, and it seems since then, my fashion choices are not a subject of discussion anymore. I naturally know which situations require me to be invisible, and in which situations I can do what I want. The subject has not really come up for a long time. She doesn't even get mad when I occasionally get a new pair of shoes in the mail. The skirt, on the other hand, that's a one-off. I'm not really being serious. It was truly an experiment, and my wife certainly doesn't need to know about it. It would be foolish to upset an equilibrium that largely works for us. She rightfully has other, more important things to criticize me about. And now, a question for you. As I recall, one of the stipulations between you and your wife was that the kids never know about your fashion proclivities. How did you manage to wear heels at all during that couple of decades of child rearing?