When I walked into a sport equipment shop the other day, there was some interesting event going on.
At a corner, or in the center of the shop to be exact, there were some machinery accompanied by some smiley staff, all surrounded by a whole bunch of shoes. Seemed like, and it turned out to be, a shoe fitting test carried out by a shoe manufacturer.
New Balance, I heard about you. I actually owned you years ago too. But you never turned to our side, skateboarding or bike riding. Anyway, it is good that you feel like giving me free advice. I’m in.
So this is the result. And of course, some staff interpreted these numbers for me.
For one thing, my feet are very wide. So wide that not many shoes would actually fit. Correct. I used to wear Raichle boots when I was skiing moguls, which left me with some pain from narrow shapes of the boots and resulting greater bumps around my little toes. It was also pointed out that my toes were weak. Not correct, I would say, as I was just putting much weight on the meaty balls. Last but not least, the arch is high, so I should wear shoes that are cushy enough to compensate. I see now, why I never cared about Vans but rather swore by high-tech sk8 shoes like Osiris ones.
So it is time for the fitting, with your dream, correct size shoes. I don’t give much damn about running shoes, but I’m of course curious about the dream fit. Bring it. My right foot boasts 4E width, and left is even greater with an F grade. To make it nice for the larger and then some, the staff handed me a super wide G-width pair, with thick mid sole designed for ultra marathons. Yes, cushy and comfy, indeed. I actually found out that the uneasy feeling before breaking in new shoes was total nonsense, as long as you chose the right stuff.
I’ve been contemplating much about shoes recently, and this opportunity gave me some insight. I took it as a sign, to care about the width and to stick to the cushy high-tech skateboard shoes. It was so great I thought I’d buy New Balance shoes if they had any skate ones in the lineup. For some time, my search for the Cinderella seems to continue.