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A little bolder today.

I’m just back from a stroll to the supermarket, a mile or so each way, and with the supermarket being in quite a busy crossroads, and at quite a busy time - lunch hour. I wore my grey suede OTK boots, medium heels. Usually I don’t bother noticing if anyone is noticing because I don’t care, but today as an experiment I decided to look at where people hold their eyes when they are out and about. In almost every case it is straight ahead into the vague middle distance, or else they are looking for something, or speaking to someone. In any case their observation threshold doesn’t appear to be lower than the waist. There are those of course with downcast eyes, either gloomy or lost in thought or because they are very introspective. And again, these people don’t seem to observe much either. One woman noticed my boots - she had been gazing at a spot on the footpath and I happened to walk through it. She glanced up at me, then back at the boots and then returned to her own private bubble. Now I was wearing, as I said, mid-grey suede OTK boots paired with fairly light coloured, but not pale, blue jeans. And worn outside the jeans. They worked together in a complementary way. If I had been wearing something more eye-catching - patent thigh-highs - maybe more people might have noticed. The point is that while we may be conscious that we are wearing something outside the norm, most of the rest of the world just doesn’t. Especially if you don’t make a show of it. I mention this because of some posts I saw lately where people were wearing really quite presentable boots and were nervous about the reactions. Don’t be. It’s fine.

I know this is a topic I have visited before, but I have some new examples of this somewhat strange phenomenon. My first example is almost not worth including because the difference is quite minimal, but it's measurable. I have two examples of the Steve Madden "Klory," which I consider to be the perfect all around pump, but for the fact that it isn't leather. I am willing to put up with this because they are otherwise quite comfortable, and I can't think of an occasion in the last several years where I would wear a pair of pumps for more than a few hours at a time. At any rate, the nude or beige Klorys (which is the pair I bought first) measure 4 5/8" up the back of the heel. The black ones, which are the same exact size, same exact model, measure 4 3/4". This is in some ways hardly worth noting, because you notice it neither from wearing them nor looking at them without benefit of a measuring device. Even side by side, you don't really notice it until you place them as I have them pictured here. The next example is also from Steve Madden. This model is called "Daisie," and is pretty similar to the Klory, but has thinner stiletto heels, and perhaps slightly more pointed toes. However, there is a remarkable difference between the nude patent and the tan patent colors. The nude comes in at 4 5/8", just like the Klory, but the tan pair measures only 4 3/8". Again, same model, same size, different color. This difference is quite noticeable both visually and in actual use. The last example I have for today are my True Religion open toe mules, model name unknown. I have had four pairs of these over the years, but the first two are long gone for reasons which I won't get into in this post. I have about 100 miles on the black pair, and they have the potential to become my most durable heels ever. Since this is a model that was offered more than 10 years ago, I saw the brown ones and figured I'd better snap them up--you don't see them around so often anymore. Imagine my surprise when I try on my new brown ones, and yeah, they're a little snug, but something else is off, too. It turns out that the brown pair's heels are 4 3/4", while my old black pair is 4 1/2". The difference is actually more than 1/4", but I'm not measuring to the 1/32". Even I am not quite that geeky.

FSJ shoes are the worst about this. I honestly don't know if their heels get gradually taller with larger sizes or not, but their photos are always misleading. Pretty consistently, the first photo, the one they will use as the main photo, will show a shoe that looks like it's in the 5+ inch range. What you actually get is something like 4-ish inches. The set of photos that shows when you click on the product does in fact show the actual, lower heels, but they look nothing like that first picture that made you click in the first place. In my limited experience, they're not horrible shoes, but they for whatever reason purposefully attempt to misrepresent their product in a subtle way.

So who bought you the coat for your birthday? Because if it was your wife, then she bought the coat knowing it was woman's?

I always wear mine over my jeans. I like the look and also, in the case of OTK boots it’s just way too much of a hassle to do anything else. My boots are fairly conservative in style - classics, real leather or Nubuck suede, and quiet colours which pair well with jeans. There’s no reason for them to attract attention

Great feelings indeed, the best! Thanks for all your encouragement buddy, I have finally mustered the courage/confidence to properly wear my boots over the levis. Actual comments/compliments are rare, but sometimes I can almost "feel the stares" as if folks were talking out loud. I'm always nervous about being around kids, especially in tight places such as elevators. We all know that kids have no "filters", and will say whatever is on their mind. I can honestly say that I have never actually heard a little kid making a comment though. Every once in a while, I do get a compliment, split 50-50 between women and men. Most are too polite to make any negative comments, although I am sure there are comments after I have passed by. I try to remember that the most negative comments usually come from the most frustrated, whether it be women or men. At the end of the day, I must remember that I think I look great in boots, which is really all that matters, although I'm not afraid to admit that I value and appreciate positive feedback from others.

I wear my boots on the outside of my pants all the time. The last time I wore my Jessica Simpson stilettoes shoe shopping, the shoe manager told me she had the same pair, but had to give them away when her feet grow during pregancy. Mine are not "modest" heels, most 4 inch + whatever platforms. I get the eye roll, more often from older adult women. The eye roll is where they see your boots, roll their eyes up and see you're male, then roll their eyes down to look at the boots again. By that time I am past them Kids sometimes will point it out to their parents. Rarely a comment. My boots are real or faux leather or suede. I would guess the responce might be different if I wore a fetish or shiny plastic looking boots. Or boots covered in sequins. It took sometime to start wearing them on the outside. But my boots weren't cheap, so why hide them. I trying to expand my boots into other colors and styles, like the western boots in ICE from Freebird.

I like to wear knee boots and have two pairs of over the knee styles too. Most of the time I'm wearing them with leggings or jeggings so the whole boot is showing. The only time I wear them under my pants is when I go to church on Sundays, but my pants show off my heels on my boots and sometimes I have to lift my pant leg to show off my boots to my lady friends. I love wearing boots out! Happy Heeling, bluejay

I received the same coat for my birthday in red. In this photo, the tags and the wife are still attached. I have no idea why the picture continues to load 90º off from the way it actually looks, but I'm not going to spend a lot of time trying to figure it out.