mlroseplant

These look to be in considerably better shape than the red ones. I'm not sure if the red ones are as worn as they appear in the picture, because sometimes photography can fool you.

Take it a little easy on him, it's February, and he's from Canada. I haven't been taking any pictures lately, either. Way too cold to be modeling skinny jeans, especially those with holes already in them! Give us a couple of months.

In addition to our other head-scratchers, 120 USD seems like a really bad price range for Asian customers. I realize that Chinese have, on average, more spending power than Vietnamese, but 120 bucks or its local equivalent seems a bit steep for your average working gal.

22 hours ago, Jkrenzer said:

Red at work. This is a old pair of Italian Heels. Well worn and feel like leather gloves.

Yes, they kind of look like leather gloves, too! How many miles do you have to put on before they look like that? Also, what is the sizing like with Italian Heels? I realize these shoes are old, and your experience may not be applicable any longer. 98% of the time, I take a 40 in EU sizes. So many conversion charts that claim 39 = USW 9, which drives me nuts. I'm sorry, 39 ≠ 9. It just doesn't. It's taken me a long time to figure that out.

I have more BCBG shoes than any other brand in my collection. They seem to fit me well, and they're decent quality. There are three basic levels of BCBG. BCBG Max Azria, which is the expensive line, BCBGirls, which is the cheap line, and BCBGeneration, which is the middle line. I think you will enjoy the boots. Too bad the company is no longer in business.

I know it seems a little strange to our Western sensibilities, but that is the most normal guy I've ever seen in heels who is not one of us. Normal for East Asian advertising, anyway, phải không?

Edit, further thoughts: And do you know why that is? It's because he's selling women's shoes, and and not some super-glam, strange looking men's boot with a big honking heel on it. This has got me fairly convinced that any high heels that are designed "for men" are intrinsically inferior to high heels that are designed as high heels.

And yet a further edit: It seems that, after having viewed that video, all of the ancillary ads associated with this site (hhplace) have now all turned to Chinese. Weird. At least they're not trying to sell me Tevas or Birkenstocks.

16 hours ago, Chorlini said:

The problem with downsizing is that it takes a lot of work and above all energy to downsize. Offering shoes for sale, both here and on the local auction sites can sometimes take forever. And when you try to sell elsewhere it draws in a lot of crazies and low ballers. Sometimes it's just easier to throw your unwanted pairs into a local 2nd hand clothes collection bins. Easy to do with cheap shoes, but what about the really expensive ones? No wonder we get out of control collections. I finally understand women in that regard. It takes zero effort to buy new shoes, it takes quite some effort to sell old shoes.

I used to sell shoes, but nowadays I give them to the thrift shop. It just so happens that when I did my latest shoe inventory and decided to get rid of a few pair, there is this one particular pair of clogs that I just don't wear at all anymore. There is nothing wrong with them, I've just gotten out of the habit of wearing them. So I put them in the giveaway pile. Then I discovered what they're going for on Poshmark. Like 150-200 bucks! I know I didn't pay that much for these clogs, but I guess I'll keep them now. Or actually attempt to sell them.

There is no question that Work From Home is here to stay, because of the many benefits to all as mentioned in depth above. However, it doesn't work for everyone (no pun intended). WFH is not an option for me, both because of the nature of my work and my personality. First, it's awfully tough to build any physical structure from home, and second, I'd be fired within months if I worked from home. I'd never get anything done. I'm finally old enough and mature enough to admit that shortcoming. Luckily, I've got a place to go every day, where I'm not allowed to get distracted, but when I leave in the afternoon, I don't think about the job (much) until the next day. There are definite advantages to having work and home completely segregated. My only regret is having a profession where I can't ever wear heels to work.

I guess it is encouraging to see shoes as well as boots in this ad campaign. I'm not going to give CL himself any crap about doing what is apparently a 180 on his former men in heels statements. Even if you can ignore money/profit motives, you have to give people room to change as the world changes. Having said all of that, there are no shoes or boots featured in this set that I would actually wear.

I can appreciate those who like collecting things for the sake of collecting them, but I really hate to possess too many of these items if I'm not going to actually use them, especially since my excess is not necessarily limited to shoes. I do not get much pleasure or satisfaction from simply having 100 pairs of shoes, but I do get those feelings from actually wearing them, and more specifically, wearing them out and walking in them. Believe it or not, I really don't wear heels around the house--well, I do, but they're mainly mid-heels, and the biggest criterion for a good house shoe is to be able to slip it on or off hands free. Typically, if you can do that, it doesn't make for a good walking shoe. On a positive note, I did wear some stiletto ankle boots that I haven't worn in several years to choir rehearsal last night!

Another curious thing about me is that in the past when I have bought doubles or triples of a shoe model that I think I really, really like, not long after said purchase, I've lost interest in them. Not always, but it has happened several times when I've bought them in two or more colors. One of these days, I should make a list of all the shoes I've gotten rid of over the years and the reasons why. It won't be a complete list, but it will be in the neighborhood of 80% complete.

I touched upon this subject on Christmas Day a little bit, but it has been eating at me quite a bit more since then, mainly because I've already broken my resolution and have bought more shoes since then. I didn't really make a hard resolution, but I did say 99 pairs were enough. Now I have to say 102 pairs are enough, and I no longer have quite enough space for everything. I was full up before.

Back when my collection was around 50 or even 60 pairs, I could honestly say that yeah, it seems like a lot of shoes, but I actually wear them all. And it was true! I did have summer and winter shoes, but except for maybe a couple of novelty items, I didn't really neglect anybody. Nowadays, by contrast, I just counted 10 pairs that I have not yet even worn outside the house.

Part of the problem is not just sheer numbers, but style. I would say that about three quarters of my collection is definitely on the dressy side, and that includes sandals. If I could actually wear heels to work, I would not be writing this now. The fact is, I just don't have occasion to wear heels that much, and especially not super dressy heels. The fact is, we don't really go anywhere anymore, especially after the pandemic. I do and will have the farmer's market, at least the one on concrete, but the type of shoe that I would wear there is limited once again by style--it needs to be rather casual. By my seat-of-the-pants estimate, I would say that I wear about 15-20 pairs out of the entire collection 90% of the time, and if I want to be brutally self aware, of that 15-20, there are probably half a dozen pair that I wear 75% of that 90%. I definitely have my favorites.

Because many of my shoe styles are quite dressy, as a practical matter I only have around 52 opportunities a year to wear half of my collection. Doing the math, even if I never repeated at any point during the year, that's one wear per year per pair of shoes. As a practical matter, this means some shoes never get worn at all. This was certainly never my intention starting out, but that is certainly what it has become.

20 hours ago, Rockpup said:

Not sure the brand, but they are dance shoes called ‘character shoes’. I’ve been too lazy to try a pair, but have always been curious to.

 

Interesting choice of words. Too lazy? Or is it that you only have a casual interest? That's certainly the case for me. Every once in a while, I'll think, "Those are cute, I should get some character shoes!" Then I think, "Come on, when am I ever going to wear those?" Never.

https://www.laducashoes.com/products/roxy-tap

23 hours ago, Jkrenzer said:

Italian heels is a great manufacturer. In general all European products have this in common.  Most middle tier suppliers don't tell you specifically but do state the heel height based on a specific size and often state height is different according to size. The cheaper guys say a height and don't make any other statement. I never buy without reading the reviews and seeing pic's in the reviews. 

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.

I don't necessarily have a problem with the overall quality of any of the products I mentioned above, I just find it curious that they would differ in that one specific way. I have doubles of several other shoes, and these three are the only ones like this. I have experienced this twice in the past. Once was the same as the current situation, where I had three different colors of the same model shoe, and all three heel heights were different for no discernible reason. The other instance of this was a mystery at the time, but is now explained. I had bought several different pairs of Michael Kors sandals which were all based on the same basic platform (no pun intended). Some of the heels measured 5 1/8", some of them 5 1/2". I finally figured out that for this particular platform, the line of demarcation is between sizes 8 1/2 and 9. If I bought a 9, I'd get a 5 1/2" heel. If I bought an 8 1/2, I'd get a 5 1/8" heel. I'm guessing that they use the exact same heel for a certain range of sizes, and don't have a gradually increasing heel height for each discrete size.

Welcome to Melrose's thread, where we talk about anything random. Keeping with the trucking theme, are road trains generally company owned, or are there owner-operators out there? The owner-operator used to be a fixture of American trucking, but they are a fast disappearing breed.

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.

We call them doubles and triples too, but triples are not allowed in every state, and they are shorter than the triples in Australia by a long shot. Iowa does not allow triples, and until 1980, did not allow doubles either, until the U.S. Supreme Court made us.

53 feet is the standard length for a single trailer. If you're doing doubles or triples, I believe the length of each trailer has to shrink to 40 feet. In any case, each trailer is noticeably smaller.

I can see why you'd love those.

12 hours ago, Puffer said:

I assume you mean 'Arctic'?   This is an artic (or what I think you call a rig in the colonies😞

But the coat would doubtless be snug when driving, in an artic or otherwise, in the winter.

Maybe, under very specific circumstances, would this be called a "rig." However, most people call them a "semi." And that is always pronounced with a long "i" sound at the end. People who actually drive semis usually call them tractor trailers. The Iowa Driver's Manual refers to them as "truck tractor semitrailer combinations," which is where the "semi" part comes from.

3 minutes ago, Jkrenzer said:

The image doesn't work 

That's probably because I was in the middle of trying to get the photo to load right side up. I failed at that, but try it now for a sideways view.

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.

On 1/13/2023 at 5:30 AM, Jkrenzer said:

Baby boy🤣

I'm not too heavy, 175 lbs, but it does make a difference as the heel itself is the same size. The force being directly proportional to weight. 

True, but if you have worn through your plastic or rubber tip, that nail holding it on is bound to be about half its original diameter, therefore increasing the pressure on somebody's (or your own) poor floor by about four times what it would normally be. That alone might account for a good deal.

15 hours ago, Cali said:

Thinking about getting these. Any comments?

Funny banter about the color. Before I scrolled through all of that, I suspected that the color was supposed to be sort of pre-distressed. However, I can see another problem completely unrelated to color. Since I know you like to try things on in person, this isn't really a problem, you will know right away. The boots are fairly slim fitting on the model. Your calves are rather bigger than your average female model's. Is this going to be an issue?

On 1/12/2023 at 5:05 AM, Jkrenzer said:

They don't burr so actually don't snag on carpet.  My floors at home have throw rugs and mostly bamboo with tile in the water rooms, kitchen and bath. Bamboo is much denser than oak and does not Mark. I've damaged oak and cheaper laminate with even plastic tips as they do wear and do have steel pins as well.

Still, love the look and sound. Many women have told me they like them too. They look good since the match up well with the main shaft. I don’t do these on my covered heels. I have a whole series of pumps and boots with the same heel and have been converting them as needed.

I don't think I've ever damaged a floor with my heels, but then again I do not like the "worn" look. Those heel tips get replaced long before they ever get to the point of any metal showing. Also, it probably doesn't hurt that I weigh a mere 135 lbs.

16 hours ago, pebblesf said:

I would agree, these boots are not feminine, but still have a bit of an edge with the nice pointed toes and conservative heels.  I think you can wear these for any occasion, love how they look over the nice tight jeans.  Would love to wear them myself.  

Here's three of us for "not feminine." I wore boots very similar to this every weekend when I used to play in a country band back in the day. Back, then, the pants were full and on the outside of the boots of course.