Help! How can I get rid of the squeaking of leather shoes with rubber soles? It's so embarrassing! Especially when I'm walking across a quiet room full of people working.
Sigh. Maybe it was an instance like this that inspired Marc Jacobs.
I think I just found the perfect shoe for the Philippines' rainy season: Sebago's Performance Marine series.
This is the Wave Ariel, and it is probably the most comfortable shoe I have ever put my feet in. There is not a single stiff piece in the uppers—everything is meant to move with your feet. Imagine yourself trying to move around on the deck of a sailboat in rough waters—you'd want your shoes to move with you and that's precisely what Sebago made this shoe to do. The materials are made to get wet and to dry quickly.
But what clinched the sale was this:
I thought it looked like an octopus' suckers, and sure enough, Sebago calls it the OctoPod. The traction is awesome! Unless I step on a slimy leaf or some litterbug's plastic trash, I am never going to slip while walking in the rain ever again.
The Ariel is the only Wave model that didn't look like running shoes and the color I chose was a chocolate brown (but I couldn't find the color in the website so it's probably last season's). I can actually wear them to work and not be accused of not looking 'professional.'
Not always, really, but in the case of shoes, this adage is so, so true.
A few blogs ago, I mentioned buying three pairs of office shoes for the price of one pair of Naturalizers. After just one day of wearing one of them, I was reminded, with much discomfort, why I stopped buying cheap shoes in the first place.
The worst of the poor construction seems to be in two spots:
1. The topline at the back
With good shoes, the leather at the back is rolled over and stitched inside so there's a little cushioning. The cheap pair I got is just stiff leather there so it rubs against the back of my ankle and leaves a dark, sore mark.
2. The vamp
The cheap shoes taper too much! The spot about an inch from where my toes begin feel like it's been crushed by a rock by the end of the day.
Never again to cheap shoes, I say. Never again.
The image I used above is a pair of Naturalizers. I'm going back. To Aerosoles too.
