Hundred-Dollar Shoes

How much is a reasonable amount to spend on shoes? I mean casual shoes, sneakers or similar?

Once upon a time, college and such, I considered myself to have splurged if I spent as much as $30 on a pair, and over time that number has crept up to the $50-60 range. Thirty dollars will buy a pair of cheap, fall-apart sneakers that will last about a year, give or take, and $60 will buy a brand-name pair that will confidently carry me through at least a year and a half or two years. I consider the extra time worth the money, but have never considered shopping for anything more expensive.

Likewise, really, with other types of shoes. I wear a lot of clogs and slip-on flats, because I’m already 5’9″ and don’t need much of a height boost, and because comfort wins over fashion every single time. I’ve branched into the sort of strapped, Mary-Jane type leather shoe over the past few years, because, why, the easier to show off the knitwear, my dear. But none of them climb above about $40 a pair, and I consider Payless, Famous Footwear, even Target to be acceptable shoe stores for my purposes.

Which brings me to my current dilemma. With the pregnancy, mixed in with an unhealthy dose of humidity and a job that has me sitting still at the computer for long stretches, I already have significant swelling around my ankles a lot of nights. Enough so that it can hurt to put on even the simplest of sandals. And I well remember, as time goes on, that it will only get harder to convince my feet to cram themselves into a pair of sneakers; even when I get them where they need to be, there’s still that hassle of tying them, which I’m generally able to avoid, unpregnant, because when my feet are predictably the same size every day, I can just leave them tied and treat them as slip-ons. Lazy, sure, but it works, since I don’t need them tightly and carefully laced for my marathon runs and exercise classes, you know?

So, ever since my pregnancy with Jacob, I have been in search of slip-on type sneakers, sometimes called “mules.” I look in every shoe store I visit, even if I’m not actively shopping for me, because I’ve never quite found what I want. And what I want is rather specific: I want them to look enough like regular sneakers that if I was wearing jeans, it wouldn’t be obvious they were backless. Not so much because of that specific look, but because that means they’re of a sturdier construction, with more arch support, etc. I do not like the fit of the thinner styles, the ones that are almost streamlined and aerodynamic in appearance – like these – because it hurts more to put on more form-fitting shoes, so I want something that’s, I don’t know, more structural or something.

And, blah, blah, blah, the point is, I’ve developed a very specific picture in my mind, of what I want – a friend of mine had a pair back in Keene, but that was five years ago and I didn’t ask where she bought them and we’ve fallen out of touch now – and can’t replicate it.

I did come close, though, last night. I found these, and they look like they would fit the bill. After several years of searching, this is no inconsequential find. But $120?? For shoes?!?

I just don’t know.

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Ooh, stop press! These look like they would work, too… and within my normal price range… hmmm…