As you’d be aware by now that I have a fascination for shoes. It stops short of an obsession and lingers around the vicinity of becoming a fetish. In one of my previous posts I’d talked about the average number of shoes a woman has; sadly I ain’t a woman and somehow the number game isn’t half as exciting when it comes to men. Happily stuck between a handcrafted leather slip-ons and a funky looking casual shoe, I knew it was time to get me a new pair. I wanted a pair of sneakers as I thought it’s be nice to stand in them while out in the Garhwal hills. There is nothing more comfortable thing known to human feet other than a well fitting sneaker
The last pair of sneakers I possessed was Reebok running shoes. I wanted a pair of Nike’s but Rahul Dravid convincing smile on a huge Reebok billboard shooed away any competition. The darn pair lasted all sorts of abuse and torture for almost three years. Since then I haven’t come across a decent looking pair. Almost four autumns since the last one died, I went sneaker shopping again.
After trying about three pairs it was love all over aga
in when Reebok discovered me like a long lost beau. These were DMX Rainwaker 5, water-proof and the works. They were, for some strange reason, labeled ‘Walking’ shoes and that’s what I intended to do in the hills while working on the documentary. I checked into the shoes and they were comfortable like sin. I trotted around and found that they were a lil tight at the toes. Too tight. I was convinced by the salesman that they will ‘open’. Who was I to argue with a sweet looking lad who worked at the shoe counter? Imagine the number of feet he must have married off to the right shoe. Trusting him I ended up picking up the pair.
CUT TO:
Four days later in the hills my toes were revolting. The freakin’ shoe was a size small! Who makes such stupid mistakes in this day and age? I couldn’t stand in the shoes and those were the only pair I carried. On closer inspection I realized that whilst the comfortable DMX padding was teasing my heel and I was busy convincing my toes that it’ll soon be OK, I ended up picking a US pair 9 instead of a UK size 9, my shoe size! And this mistake was worth Rs. 5000/-
BACK IN DELHI:
I decided to change the shoes. Three days of wearing them had rendered them ‘unusable’ and the condition of the shoe was ‘not saleable’. That’s what the salesman’s boss told me. He argued that it was a mistake on my part that I picked up the wrong size. I argued back claiming that when I spoke of the shoe being a little too tight the salesman convinced me that it’d open. I think I burst the salesman’s bubble when I assured him that the darn shoe wasn’t deflowering. He refused to reason and I squabbled at the preposterous notion of being the owner of a shoe that won’t fit and costed me a solid 5K.
A FEW TENSE MINUTES LATER:
The manager’s boss was summoned. After faithfully listening to both sides of the tale he came up with a simple test- I would be asked to test my shoe size and if I was in fact a UK size 9, as I claimed to be, he’d change the shoe. This held great importance for I had lost the bill and had already used the shoe. The moment of reckoning came and the people realized that I was as a matter of given a size smaller than the usual. This was a mistake on the part of the salesman who, in spite of being told my size, peddled a wrong one to me for there wasn’t a UK size 9 available that evening (revealed later in the trade-off).
THE NEXT MORNING:
Now things are great and as my fingers romance the keyboard of my laptop, my toes have been successfully seduced by a cushiony DMX model Reebok sneakers. And oh yeah this shoe was made possible thanks to discount coupons from a friend.
Image Courtesy: 28N
The last pair of sneakers I possessed was Reebok running shoes. I wanted a pair of Nike’s but Rahul Dravid convincing smile on a huge Reebok billboard shooed away any competition. The darn pair lasted all sorts of abuse and torture for almost three years. Since then I haven’t come across a decent looking pair. Almost four autumns since the last one died, I went sneaker shopping again.
After trying about three pairs it was love all over aga
in when Reebok discovered me like a long lost beau. These were DMX Rainwaker 5, water-proof and the works. They were, for some strange reason, labeled ‘Walking’ shoes and that’s what I intended to do in the hills while working on the documentary. I checked into the shoes and they were comfortable like sin. I trotted around and found that they were a lil tight at the toes. Too tight. I was convinced by the salesman that they will ‘open’. Who was I to argue with a sweet looking lad who worked at the shoe counter? Imagine the number of feet he must have married off to the right shoe. Trusting him I ended up picking up the pair.CUT TO:
Four days later in the hills my toes were revolting. The freakin’ shoe was a size small! Who makes such stupid mistakes in this day and age? I couldn’t stand in the shoes and those were the only pair I carried. On closer inspection I realized that whilst the comfortable DMX padding was teasing my heel and I was busy convincing my toes that it’ll soon be OK, I ended up picking a US pair 9 instead of a UK size 9, my shoe size! And this mistake was worth Rs. 5000/-
BACK IN DELHI:
I decided to change the shoes. Three days of wearing them had rendered them ‘unusable’ and the condition of the shoe was ‘not saleable’. That’s what the salesman’s boss told me. He argued that it was a mistake on my part that I picked up the wrong size. I argued back claiming that when I spoke of the shoe being a little too tight the salesman convinced me that it’d open. I think I burst the salesman’s bubble when I assured him that the darn shoe wasn’t deflowering. He refused to reason and I squabbled at the preposterous notion of being the owner of a shoe that won’t fit and costed me a solid 5K.
A FEW TENSE MINUTES LATER:
The manager’s boss was summoned. After faithfully listening to both sides of the tale he came up with a simple test- I would be asked to test my shoe size and if I was in fact a UK size 9, as I claimed to be, he’d change the shoe. This held great importance for I had lost the bill and had already used the shoe. The moment of reckoning came and the people realized that I was as a matter of given a size smaller than the usual. This was a mistake on the part of the salesman who, in spite of being told my size, peddled a wrong one to me for there wasn’t a UK size 9 available that evening (revealed later in the trade-off).
THE NEXT MORNING:
Now things are great and as my fingers romance the keyboard of my laptop, my toes have been successfully seduced by a cushiony DMX model Reebok sneakers. And oh yeah this shoe was made possible thanks to discount coupons from a friend.
Image Courtesy: 28N
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