Leaderboard

I have reached another milestone in my shoe collection. I have a new "most durable shoe" since the death of my Nine West Sizzles, See directly above. I guess I never managed to write about that failure in this blog, but that's probably because nobody would have read about it anyway. The details are chronicled elsewhere. So. . . we'll try this thread again. I present my True Religion, model name unknown, mules with a sort of wooden composite heel. I have them in three colors, as pictured below. The black ones are the ones that have the big mileage on them. I have finally passed the 200 mile mark with a pair of heels. I must have other shoes (such as work boots and hiking boots) with more miles on them than that, but I haven't actually recorded the mileage, so I cannot say for sure. I know people like to refer to having walked "hundreds of miles" in heels, but I can tell you from experience, incidental mileage does not add up as quickly as one thinks it does. That huge parking lot at the shopping mall is, in the grand scheme of things, really not all that big. I don't even try to guess at "incidental" mileage anymore. The 200 miles I've walked in these shoes has been purposeful exercise which has either been tracked and recorded with GPS or walked on routes of a known and established distance. I have owned 5 pairs of this exact model in total. I still have 3. My story begins fairly early, and by "early," I mean in 2013 or 2014. I bought an orange pair of these within a year or two after I began heeling publicly. I bought them because I was drawn to the "Candies" style wooden heeled mules that I remember from my youth. As many of you know, I am still drawn toward wooden mules, and have around 20 pair in that general style. I would probably have even more than that if it weren't for the fact that most of the wooden heeled sandals you can get are rather on the low-ish side, and I have all the low heeled shoes I need. Before I get too far off the subject, I will tell you that the orange mules did not last long in my collection back then. I'm pretty sure I donated them or sold them. Yes, I actually used to try to sell my castoffs back then. There were three reasons for this: 1) They were too high for me at the time, 2) They were orange, and I was very self-conscious, 3) I was impatient when it came to breaking shoes in. I can remember walking around the block in them for the first time and thinking, "These things are terrible! They're super tight and uncomfortable, they're loud (in both color and walking sound), and they kinda ugly." They were gone. Fast forward about 5 years, and I ran across another pair on either ebay or Poshmark, I can't remember which one. This one was dark brown. Being more experienced by then, but still liking the general style, I decided to give them another try. The second time, it was a whole different experience. First, it was obvious that somebody had actually worn these a few times, because the break-in period was minimal. There was none of the squeezing in, little by little, that I had remembered from the first pair. Second, by then, I was used to the 4 inch effective height. And third, they were brown instead of orange. Love is evidently better the second time around. But all was not sweetness and light. Soon after I got the brown pair, I lost a top lift (top piece, heel tip) while on a walk, and I didn't notice it until I got home, by which time I had ground a full 3/4" of wooden composite material off of the heel. So those were trash. Shortly after that, I went on a search mission and found the featured pair, the black pair. Like the brown pair, it had been worn before, and fit snugly, but not super tightly like my original orange pair. Within 6 miles, I lost a top lift off of the black pair. Luckily, on that occasion, I noticed right away, and walked home barefoot. I am now on my third set of heels after that, each set lasting somewhere in the neighborhood of 80 miles. Fairly recently, I expanded my collection to re-include the brown and orange versions of this mule. Both pair have been worn not at all or very little, and have required patient break-in. My new brown pair is finally ready for regular use out in the wild, but wouldn't you know, the other day when I was out for a one-miler with them, I lost a top lift! This despite the fact that I stopped every quarter mile and checked to make sure they were still there. Sometime in the last quarter mile, one of them fell off without me noticing. You would think I would notice right away, but you really can't tell with these shoes until it's too late. Luckily, only a minimal amount of heel material got worn down, definitely not a hopeless cause. However, when I take them to the cobbler to get reheeled, I'm definitely taking the orange pair, despite the fact that the stock heels are practically brand new. The stock heels don't even wear all that badly, it just seems like they won't stay on for their entire service life! I'm not taking any chances. Do I love these shoes? Not really. They are kinda ugly. For one thing, they are peep toe, and I prefer sandals that show at least three toes. The vamp comes up very high, and the contrasting stitching to me makes them look less than elegant. I have no idea how they have come to be the most used shoe in my entire collection, probably because they're comfortable and durable, and I don't really wear them to be seen. I suppose I'd better put the stats. 4 3/4 inch heel, 3/4 platform, for an effective 4 inch heel height. 3/4" heel width where it touches the ground. I know this has been rather long winded, but it seems a shame to abandon the post since I've come this far.