the worlds most expensive walking shoes

I went to Foot Solutions today to try on sneakers. wow, what a selection. I walked in and immediately saw the walking shoes. A fairly regular selection of ugly clunky sneakers, and then several very interesting ones. Some, like the Finn Comforts, didn't look like sneakers. They are after all, walking shoes.

I was greeted by Melody, a pedorthist. What is that you ask? I had no idea. I tried to look it up in the dictionary, but to no avail. So then I tried the web. Of course the first hit was Wikipedia. "A Certified Pedorthist, or C. Ped. is a specialist in using footwear - which includes shoes, shoe modifications, foot orthoses and other pedorthic devises - to solve problems in, or related to, the foot and lower limb." What did we ever do before the internet?

Anyway she asked a ton of question. I felt like I was at the foot doctor. Then she had me walk across the room, and I got on a machine which took a picture of my feet and how I stand. I said to her I should have brought my camera. She made me an extra print out. I've scanned it and it's above. The red dot's are maximum pressure on my feet. It's my heels so that's good. I apparently shift a lot of weight to my right foot. Now the young man on Sunday said I had flat feet. Her fancy computer said I had a medium arch on one foot and a high arch on the other. Whatever.

She measured me at a 10, but I tried on shoes from a 9.5 to 10.5 or 40-42 European.

The ones I was attracted to initially were Mephisto's. I knew immediately they wouldn't work. Then I tried on the Finn Comforts. They are German, with a replaceable footbed and fully repairable, so your shoes last a long, long time. They should, they cost a kings ransom...$275. I felt like I was trying on Jimmy Choos. She only had 41s which were too small. Even too small they were the most comfortable shoes I had ever had on my feet. Like my Birks, the foot bed will mold to your foot. And they have arch support.

I tried on the MBT Rockers. Boy was that weird. She said it passes after you get used to it. They, like the Skeetchers with a roll bar, are supposed to lift and tone and improve circulation, ect. (Both cost about $200 sense a trend?) We had looked at them last week in NYC on a bus stop billboard. I liked the Skeetchers, but I felt like I was walking out of them.

That happens a lot.

I also tried on some New Balance (A bargain at $110!). They were too small and they didn't have then next size up. But if I ultimately buy them, I'd get them from the New Balance store. They are a 3-day national sponsor. I might even get a discount.

All in all I tried on about 10 pair of shoes. I was there nearly an hour and a half. She ordered the Finn Comforts in my size, to try on.

When I was little, we didn't have much money. (Gee, some things never change.) But my mother always insisted on buying us good shoes. At least by the time I came along. "You only get one pair of feet", she'd say. "You have to take care of them". [She grew up wearing "relief" shoes. They were always the wrong size and her feet were a tangled mess of bunions, hammer toes, and arthritis. She wanted to spare us that. Although I think my eldest sister and brother may have worn "relief" shoes too.] So she'd scrape together money to buy us really good shoes. Every year before school started we'd get a new pair. The old pair was relegated to "play" shoes. Each pair was the same, just older. On Easter we'd get patent leather Mary Janes from the pre-cursor to Payless on Stefko Blvd. You'd wear them to church and come home and immediately take them off.

Enough memory lane. The question remains, do I dare I really spend that much money on one pair of shoes?

I don't know.

Mama?

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To see the super expensive and super comfortable Finn Comforts, click here: http://www.finncomfort.com/collections/prod_detail.aspx?style_sku=82736&name=Cusco