KneeBooted

Ah, the blessing that is foot cushions!

So as I was prepping over this weekend for tomorrow’s trip, one thing I kept noticing is that while no muscles were hurting from prolonged wear of my new boots, the balls of my feet did tend to feel a little sore after a few hours in them.

Now by default, I would’ve tried to power through it, which in the long run would be a bad idea I’m sure. So on Sunday I was at Walgreens getting some ‘sick’ medicine, aka cough drops because I’m an idiot and don’t properly medicate when I get the flu or a cold. I decided I would look and around and came across the Dr. Scholl’s ball of foot inserts. They are a gel cushion and in the package they feel amazing.

So I bought them and came home to try them out. Now being pull-on boots, it wasn’t the easiest to set them in and once I got them to where the ball of my foot didn’t feel any pain, the top of the foot felt pressure against the boot, which ended up being worse than the ball of foot pain in my opinion.

But being a trooper I decided I would mess with them again a bit tonight and I think I found the sweet spot! Now I won’t know for sure until after tomorrow’s travels, but I will be sure to report back. Early impressions are that these were well worth the investment.

7 hours ago, HappyinHeels said:

KneeBooted,

My experience has been that I wear a size 14 in women's jeans but a 16 is good for 4-5"/10-12cm heels whereas a size 18 is better for heels higher than that. You may want to follow suit using whatever your size is without heels and go up from there. On the other hand, if you really want to make a splash then you could just wear some skinny jeans with those heels. Like Shyheels pointed out it would save the tailoring. HinH

I would tend to agree that going up a pant size in the same “length” would add a little to the inseam. The downside though is that the size 12 long jeans I have don’t fit well in the waist area. I would wear skinny jeans with my Nine West boots that are very similar to these, but this particular trip/excursion is an experiment in getting through TSA precheck without taking off my boots. The Steve Madden are pull on, and look a little bulky over skinny jeans.

1 hour ago, p1ng74 said:

It’s a pair of jeans - try just folding the hem up.  The “cuffed” look is supposedly hip nowadays.

Yeah, I see that being a trend, but I don’t think that’s one I’ll ever be able to get behind. I don’t know why but to me the folded cuff look always appears a tad bit sloppy.

11 minutes ago, Cali said:

Keep those extra long pants and go out and fine heels that are taller to go with the pants.

Haha! I texted my friend a picture and that was her reaction as well! “You just need higher heels!” 

10 minutes ago, Shyheels said:

Indeed - slightly long. An inch would be ideal but what you had before was perfectly fine. A nice look at any rate and certainly doing its part to make acceptable - even commonplace - the idea of men in heels.  

Thanks! Yeah I think if I leave the x-long pants the way they are, the heels will get worn AND it looks more like I am trying to hide the heels, not let them be seen.

Well I got the extra long pants in today and tried them on... maybe I’ll hem them an inch lol!

59 minutes ago, MackyHeels said:

Anyone swim in heels?

I would, but not in mine, lol. I wouldn’t want to ruin my own

So these are the two pairs of wedges I recently bought. I have worn the blue ones but haven’t worn the silver ones yet.

So I will probably not be wearing this combo out anytime soon, but a little birdie kept bugging me until I tried this combo out today. What do you all think?

9 minutes ago, jeremy1986 said:

 

Hi @KneeBooted - great buys, both the wedge all stars and the boots!  How high are the heels on them? The boots looks great with the jeans, btw!

Thanks! The boots have a 4” heel, and the wedges are either like 2.7”? I haven’t measured them, that’s what the site info had. I am getting another pair of jeans that are a tad longer to see if they look any better, but I agree that this length may be the best choice!

Thanks @pebblesf and @HeeledSteve I must admit that I am not the fondest of the crew neck sweater(cream color), but I was definitely unsure of which v-neck looked good. I am not the best when it comes to color coordinating

Hello again! It’s time to ask for advice. I have really grown to love wearing a blazer. My wife has always been pushing me to wear more than just T-shirts for tops, and I must say that I like the look of wearing a blazer.

So I am flying out Wednesday morning to head home to see the family for thanksgiving, and am struggling to decide which combo to go with. I did some googling and saw that a sweater and blazer combo looks really good together. Showing up that way will definitely make the wife happy, as she likes my top half to look a little masculine, lol.

However, I can not decide which of these sweaters goes best! The blazer is a dark navy color, which my dark wash jeans, and my new Steve Madden boots.

Please feel free to comment on which one you think goes best, and thank you!

So I received the bag from Amazon last week, and I will say right off of the bat, I noticed it was smaller than the bag I currently use. Now I am primarily looking for the bag to be a good work/travel bag in that I can fit my laptop, cables, etc along with my big water container(32oz hydro flask), etc. in all fairness, it’s a really tight fit to get everything in there smoothly and not have it feel overstuffed.

However, I got to thinking about the reason I ordered the bag when I did. Travel. I won’t have all of my work crap in there, so let’s see how it does with a laptop, water bottle, extra pair of shoes(I always have a pair of converse wedges with me when I travel), scarf, ibuprofen, and all of the miscellaneous cables, etc. Everything fit like a charm! So needless to say I am happy with the bag thus far, but won’t really have good feedback until after this trip. I am curious to see how it holds up to flying.

I added a picture for size comparison. The new one is on the left.

2 hours ago, kneehighs said:

I think this guy has a look some here aspire to.  

https://www.instagram.com/pellehusvall/

He's from Sweden.

I would agree, this is a good look. I’ll have to start following him!

I think I may try to get a pair real quick off of Poshmark and see if I can get them before I fly out... if not, I’ll have them for my December trip lol

59 minutes ago, pebblesf said:

Yes, it is surely tough to keep up with TSA rules, that seem to vary between airports.  I usually go through the "crew line", which only requires scanning "randomly".  The TSA folks are often short with me/us when "selected for random screening", thinking we should know all "the rules".  It is not worth the hassle of trying to explain that we/I rarely go through the screening lines so are not very familiar with "the rules"....Commenting that the "rules" seem to vary between airports would probably only result in "further screening".  So,  I usually just take off my boots, and pull the electronics out of the bag, just to avoid being hassled further. 

Kneebooted:  You look great in those boots and jeans, perfect combination for any terrain or walking situation....Let me know if you ever travel on AA, would be so cool to meet you on one of my flights....D

Thank you for the compliments! As it so happens, I only try to fly through AA. I fly to SDF next Wednesday and then back out to California on the following Sunday. I do this for Christmas as well.

4 minutes ago, Shyheels said:

Very nice boots and a very sensible purchase, especially with the security at airports. Here you have to take off any boots anyway, regardless of zippers, so it wouldn’t matter. I’d actually prefer a pair with zips as they are easier for me to remove than pull-on ones when you’re standing in the security queue. Nice that your wife is so supportive too. 

Thanks! I must admit I’ve been confused by that ever since I first heard that you have to remove your boots, no matter what, overseas. How long has that been a thing?

8 minutes ago, Shyheels said:

No, I suppose not. I was thinking purely of fashionability and where trousers ideally end. With heels it is obviously trickier. 

Very true. I feel like with my other boots, and it’s likely because the heel is 1/4” shorter on those, the pants are at a perfect length.

2 minutes ago, Shyheels said:

Not bad, no. An extra inch would be great but not two. I think it's fine as is.

I guess in truth, I don’t want them to be completely hidden, right?

So I was worried my wife was putting a hold on my shoe purchases. In all fairness, I’ve had a desire to buy more shoes out here than if I were back home. I blame it on idle hands, lol!

Anyway, I had previously mentioned to my wife about getting another pair of black knee high boots, to which her response was “You already have a nice pair.” I mainly had a desire after @p1ng74 posted his pair of black pull-on knee high boots.

While I know she wouldn’t let me spend that much, I had found a pair of Steve Madden that looked to be fairly comparable in style.

Now in all fairness, my wife expected a good reason for why I wanted them. Enter the first world problem:

I have TSA Precheck and I don’t want to have to take off my boots every time because they set off the metal detector. With a pair of pull on boots, no zipper, no issue.

Well I didn’t really explain that to her in the beginning, so I got shut down. But I noticed they had gone on sale through amazon and I just happened to have a $30 gift car from my sister for my birthday.

So it had been a little bit and I reapproached the conversation with the wife. She again asked why I wanted them, and then explained my first world problem. Surprisingly, she was like “ok, that makes sense, go ahead and get them.” Woohoo!

So here they are, being worn over skinny jeans. The amazon reviews said to order a size up, but there was no 10.5, so I would have had to get an 11, which would’ve been too big for me. So I stuck with the usual 10, and with my thicker socks, it is a little tight in the toe box, but I feel that will soften up a bit. I don’t think I would normally wear these over jeans as they are loose because they are pull on and I have tiny legs. I will keep my Nine West for that chore. They are my tallest boots, about 1/4” higher heel than my Nine West, which you can see in the one picture.

There was a very small scuff on the right boot at the front of the toe box, but it’s not worth returning them.

I am hoping to break these in before my flight a week from today so I can try them out!

The style name is called Eton, and they are leather, but it feels a bit thinner that what I would normally expect. Still a great boot though.

4 minutes ago, Cali said:

You could go an extra inch, but 2 inches maybe too long.

Thanks for the feedback. I was thinking about getting a pair of these jeans in ‘extra-long’ but I think the inseam is another 2”

But you don’t think it’s a bad length where they are at?

So I ended up with some new boots, and I’ll post in the other thread, but I wanted to get an opinion here on length of pants. I took a picture showing where my “long” pants come down to when wearing the new boots. I always wonder if my pants legs should be longer. What are your thoughts?

9 minutes ago, Steve63130 said:

Since when have backpacks become gender specific? I can understand the company wanting to appeal to women by having something that is lighter weight perhaps or in pink, but announce that it is for women ignores and insults half their potential market, and that's just stupid.

Nice backpack, by the way. And it won't show wine spills! LOL

Steve

I laughed when I read your response because I thought the same thing! I am fairly certain that’s why I didn’t see it in the beginning, because it was listed as a woman’s backpack. Silly times we live in.

So years ago when I worked for Lexus, we got these really nice backpacks that were made my OGIO. Now I have since switched, mainly because there were too many pockets and it just looked cluttered. My wife had found me a backpack that was clean and simple lines by a company called TigerNu, but the quality just seemed to be lacking. Within 6 months, the inner pockets were starting to fall apart after minimal use. That’s what has prompted this ‘quest’ for a new bag. After reading everyone’s responses, it helped me reflect on the one time I had a messenger bag with a padded shoulder strap (probably 15 years ago.) While I did enjoy the look, I can vaguely remember the pain when it had a full load.

So I was mentally prepared for another backpack, but didn’t know what I wanted. While I was in line to get a coffee at the airport waiting to fly back out to California, a UPS pilot made it a point to compliment the backpack I had with me, the TigerNu. He liked the clean look of it and that it didn’t give off a ‘busy’ vibe.

I had ruled out OGIO and Swiss gear because I couldn’t recall a ‘clean’ laptop backpack. After browsing other sites and not happy, I came across this... I am sold on the style, but not sure which color to go with? I figure black is always good, but maybe the wine is a good choice too?

I would love the input!

https://www.ogio.com/womens/soho-womens-laptop-backpack/spr4704963.html

1 hour ago, p1ng74 said:

We are in a bulkhead row, and a lady sat down next to me in the middle seat with a bag.  First thing she did was bend completely onto the floor, looking under my seat for a place to store her bag.  Oh, the joys of traveling on a Wednesday, when more of the infrequent travelers are around.  She spent a lot of time looking around down there.  I imagine she noticed my heels but didn’t say anything lol.  

I guess I never particularly noticed this before but people here in my New England destination walk way faster through the airport - I definitely stuck to the right side and let everyone barrel past me through the terminal.  Even the short lady in 3” heels just sailed right by at double the step I was doing.  I guess that is the trick - if your heels are limiting your stride length, just pick up the pace!

I’ve done almost 2 miles of walking and 14 hours straight in these boots now, and I am still comfy in them eating dinner in the hotel bar.  

And after dinner...

So after asking you about these, I am trying to convince my wife to let me get the Steve Madden Eton knee high boots, which are a very similar style to what you have, at about half the price as they are a season or two old. This would be a perfect solution so I don’t have to take them off when I go through the metal detector in TSA precheck.