Saturn

Yes, my outing experience wasn't too bad at all. People really just don't care. Just how nobody watches what they're doing when they're driving, or whatever, the majority of people seem to be lost in whatever it is that they're doing. To change gears a little back to the topic of trying on shoes in store: People are talking about shopping at Aldos or other trendy women-specific high heel stores. This is the only hurdle I can't leap just yet. These smaller, concentrated shops are STILL hard for me to go into and actually try the shoes on. Their entire shop is very small, with large glass windows, and usually pretty busy. It's strange. I'll go into any "family-style" store, and try shoes on. Clearance rack at a big mall department store? Fine. But these "full service" shoe stores still kinda scare me. I think the main reason that I'm scared is that I don't think those places will carry my size 11, and it'll just be a waste of time. I suppose I'll never know if I don't try - but hey, I've come a long way here.

Thanks for the "thanks!" Anyway, yeah, the male clerks. At Shoe Carnival (the one that I went to) had a lot of young guys in there, and several women. I'll have them ring me up, sure. In fact, one time, a guy my age asked for my area code (which was out of the area, I was away at college) and I gave it to him. He said (while ringing up a large pair of stilettos, mind you) that he was from the same area, and we chatted for a while. The shoes never came up in conversation. I have asked the male employees to "check in the back" for sizes, but aside from that, I won't ask them for assitance. I agree it's strange - here we're generalizing about other males, yet we ARE male. I think the reason I stereotype is because it seems that males are often more victims of conformism than females. It's okay for females to have emotions, wear what they want, do whatever.But a guy has to be a guy, at all times. So I'm not really looking forward to the reactions from them, as they're rediculously predicable. The female reaction is far more entertaining and enlightening, actually. Be it close-minded, or intrigued, or whatever, at least the female is INTERESTED, right? Being a guy who wears heels, you immediately have something in common with most women. So the women are at least curious on many different accounts and want to know more. Men just think that their masculinity will somehow be affected just by being around you. I'm very secure with my masculinity, and the heels don't upset it whatsoever. Still, they're allowed to have their view on the subject, but chances are I can predict how they're going to act. As an experiment, I wore a very obvious pair of heels in an outing. They were a pair of 3", pointy-toed stiletto boots - shin-high (not quite knee high, so whatever) and they were WHITE. Yes, white... blindingly white. And they clicked louder than hell. It was perfect. So, I stopped off at several rest stops on my trip home from college. I noticed many men looking around trying to find the source of the heels, which was actually kind of entertaining (as I do the same exact thing!). In fact, any females (young or old) did NOT notice my boots! I was wearing them with jeans, but they were in full view. One young boy, I'd say 12 years old or so, did a double take at my boots. That was it. Then, on my way out of the last rest stop, a huge entourage of 20-somethings featuring Abercrombie & Fitch/Aeropostale/American Eagle/Hollister guys with two girls walked in. I got past the entire group, but the very LAST guy in the group looked down (blatantly) then looked up at my face. This guy's face said it all - "You're a freak." And I'm not imagining it, I can read people very well. The next stop was my local HOMETOWN Wal-Mart. I often see people that I know here, and it was quite busy. Still part of the experiment. Well, Wal-Mart's parking lot tore the hell out of my heel tips, which sucked because they were doing fine on all the flat surfaces. Then, as I was walking in, a large group of black girls (late 20 somethings?) followed me in, maybe 15 feet away. One girl noticed right away, and pointed out my boots to her friends. She goes "Oh, look at those white boots? Do they have a heel? Yeah, they do!" I heard a little giggling, but I didn't mind. Actually, I usually see black women wearing the more prominent stiletto boots, so I'm not surprised they noticed right away (as opposed to the decidedly caucasian setting of the rest stops, where zero females noticed the boots). So what did I learn? If you go into crowded areas full of younger people, you might get laughed and pointed at. But like I said, I picked the most obvious pair of heels that I had. If they were black - I bet the people who noticed and said things wouldn't have said anything at all, even though they were very clacky stilettos. But this was my goal - to GET noticed, and see how bad it would be. Honestly, it wasn't that bad. One kinda negative reaction (Hollister guy), one neutral (curious young boy), one jovial/mildly negative reaction (black girl). And yes, the whole situation was a thrill. Hey, you only go around once. And you just might be the most interesting point of someone else's day, right? And I don't really mind that, as long as can't stop me from being me - which involves wearing heels, of course.

I haven't replied to this thread, and it's a good one, so I guess I'll add my two cents. It seems many of you went through the exact same thing that I did. First, I would try them on only in empty stores, and be very nervous and scared. Then I moved on to not giving a crap. I think things changed once I got older, because when I was in high school, everyone from school went to the mall. Now, I'm lucky if I see ANYONE I know at the mall. I don't care what these clerks think. I've even asked for help - why? It's FUN! I actually like seeing the reactions, but I only really ask for help when I need it, and only from women - though it is surprising how little some women know about heels, especially those working at a shoe store! I was shopping at a Shoe Dept. several months ago (this is a fun story). I was already in my "I don't care" mode, and I was trying on anything that I wanted. This was in May, so they still had many stilettos out (and on clearance) before the open-toed shoes came out. I was trying on some fairly normal-looking boots with a blocky 3" heel, and I asked the clerk girl if she could help me understand how they're supposed to fit. She was a little shocked, but helped me anyway, and then after a minute or two she didn't seem to care. But, as I mentioned, these boots were very inconspicuous. Then, I noticed that they had some (non-leather) patent knee-high boots with a pointed toe, large buckle on the size, and a 4" stiletto heel. They were very feminine woman's boots, almost remind me of the "Pretty Woman" boots (except not thigh-high). I tried them on right in the store, size 11, size 12, then size 11 again. They only had one boot because these were up front, and they had to have a clerk get you the second. I decided on the 11s, and the clerk (who was an elderly man) got my other boot for me. His reaction was simply hilarious. "Are you sure?" he said. I'm like "Yep, go get the other one!" Heh. So I bring the two pairs of boots up to the counter, the conservative and non-conservative one. There were two younger girls running the register (including the one who helped me). The only that didn't help me was talking about how she saw some strange goth kid that came in, and he was "dressed so weird and looked stupid. His hair was retarded." So the original girl starts ringing me up - "You're not going to return these, are you?" (talking about the 'hooker' boots). My reply - "Nope, they're mine now." So the other girl continues on about how she was visually offended with this goth dude, and notices the heels being rung up. She looks up at me, and I say to her - "Hey, everyone's got something inside of them that makes them a little weird." And then I winked at her. She nodded, but didn't look freaked out. It was kind of a melancholy response. I grabbed my bag and walked out. That was one of the most fun trips to the shoe store I've had in a while! Oh, and on page 11 of this thread I noticed that somebody said that Shoe Carnival is not that great of a place for large sizes. I beg to differ. There are usually many size 11s and 12s for MOST of the higher (stiletto) heels. The only heels that stop at about size 10 are the trendier "junior" style heels, which is unfortunate, but they are mostly blocky-style heels. When I was scared to try on heels in the store, I ended up buying a couple pairs of pointy-toed stiletto pumps (patent red and faux alligator) at Shoe Carnival in size 12. I've since learned that any size 12 (except Pleaser) slip off my feet, so I gotta get rid of those. You guys may see them on the "for sale" section soon enough. Of course, my experience at this store probably differs from store to store.

I'm going to have to retract a lot of what I said about Payless. After seeing what kind of shoes everyone was getting there, I decided to stop by Payless and see what's been going on in the year or so that I haven't been in there. Definately a big improvement all around in the selection. I guess the bottom line is, I wouldn't have had to go online to find some good styles as soon as I did. While I was there, I scoped out the size 12s and 13s, and it really seems they're embracing the larger sizes instead of making only huge chunky-wide strange looking heels. I saw some black slingback peeptoes that were pretty nice, but I'm not really into peeptoes, more the slingback style. I'm sure come winter they'll have more closed toe varieties. I've also been stopping in a few higher-end adult stores (Adult Mart and Pricillas) because they carry heels - unfortunately, their shoes only go up to size 10. Boo. And I guess I'm gonna have to stop by Burlington Coat Factory soon. All these stores I'm mentioning are around Cleveland, Ohio.

Wow, 9.5 Womens is very small for a male. You're lucky. Pretty much every one of my friends has like size 11, 12, or 13 US Men sizes. I'm glad I don't have to deal with that, it's hard enough to shop. I understand that Payless is the only store for some people... there are four Payless stores near me, three of which I can regularly check without wasting gas. They usually have a pretty slim selection, as does my local Wal-Mart. The last half dozen times I've been to the ol' Wally World, they only had 1 size 12 and it was a very low-heeled, ugly patent sandel with a weird color (purple, I think). Not only was it too big, but it was not my taste at all. Looking through the endless Payless thread, I see some nice stilletos. I can say that my local Payless never have anything close to the nice shoes you guys are finding at your local shops (and as I understand it, you're ordering from the Payless online store as well). I guess I have to be happy with my US 11 Women feet, it could be worse (I do take a size 12 M for Pleaser shoes though).

Are you able to find any thinner-heeled stilettos at Payless? I usually find very thick or chunky heels there. Sometimes you can tell that they're specifically designed to hold a larger frame.

I should preface this post by stating that I am in the US - so these thoughts mostly apply to stores located in the US (I'm pretty sure... didn't do much research).

For those that can't find stores other than Payless that carry size 11 and up, I've found these are very reliable sources:

1. Shoe Dept. I find these in malls and sometimes shopping centers. Usually have size 11 and 12, (not 13) and usually the larger sizes stay on the shelves and end up clearanced - good for us! I bought a couple pairs of boots from these places for 1/8th the cost. The quality is so-so, but hey... if the price is right, it's always fun to buy a new pair for $8 that used to cost $40 and all the small sizes are gone. They have a decent selection of higher stilettos, which I like. Not many higher than 4" though.

2. Gabriel Brothers. This place has cheap prices, and carrys many size 12s! I wear size 11, so it gets a little frustrating seeing all the size 12s and trying them on, and they are slipping off my feet even with socks on. Most of the heels in the "clearance area" are from Frederick's of Hollywood. I've seem some really high heels here - 5", maybe even 5.5" - but a lot of times, they just have so few 11s and a ton of 12s. Good news for size 12s.

Places that I don't like:

1. Payless Shoes. Sure, that's where I started too. But the larger heels are not that stylish. Not many stilettos in the larger sizes. All the fun styles are in the smaller sizes - not fair! Still, good for getting big, WIDE sizes, so it's not all that bad. I am technically an 11W, but I never find anything good in the wide sizes though.

2. Wal-Mart. Screw this place, honestly. Not much over a size 10, and even if it is, it's probably flat and/or boring. You're lucky to find an 11 or 12. They actually used to be much better in this department, but it's gotten worse since I started buying (of course).

3. K-Mart. Read my Wal-Mart rant, minus the "they used to have good stuff" part.

4. Goodwill / Salvation Army / any Thrift Store. They're fun to look around, but the larger styles are usually... how do I say this... dumpy? Yeah. A lot of size 9 dissapointments. Occasional size 10s, too small for me. Not many high(er) heels, if at all. Size 11s are usually nothing I'd want. Size 12, prepare yourself for some loafers. You will get lucky occasionally with the chunkier "goth" type boots or shoes, if that's what you like. I actually donated 4 or 5 pairs of my 11s (and one size 10 from when I thought I could wear that - WRONG!) I came back to the store, and all of my pairs had already been purchased. So that might be why the larger, neater sizes are hard to find there. Somebody's beating me to it!

One thing that I liked about all these stores, is that it's fairly painless and rather exciting to try the shoes on in-store. There's usually a lull of activity unless you go on a weekend or something.

So what do you think of these opinions? Did you have similar experiences in these stores? Did anyone ever find a VERY high pair of shoes at the thrift store? Please, share!

These are very close to the ones in the recent episode of House.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IA7iuDLACg&feature=related

I already posted this in the video section, but skip ahead to 1:05-ish to see a closeup of the shoes.