Just got feet, don't got SHOES

You've got the legs for it! What a great style.

those are great! i was looking at them myself but only pair in my size was a weird orange-caramel shade.. i liked the color but wouldn't match anything i own :)

Those are very cute!

Alright ladies, I've spent the whole summer wearing the most ridiculous cheap flipflops (the kind with the fake lace/sequin "closed" toe) because I am sick of blisters and I'm tall enough as it is. Anyway it's getting colder and I realize I have to buy a pair of boots and I am thinking I might have to order online since I have size 11 (ladies') feet.

My question: most comfortable brand of boots you have ever bought?
I am thisclose to just getting some docs. I like my boots black, with some sort of slight heel, and with grip on the bottom because the ice/snow is murder in the winter! I bought a pair last year with almost no grip and spent the whole winter walking....really....really...slowly.. and they were shit material that disintegrated a lot thanks to Toronto's excessive use of salt.

Help? :(

I have a pair that look exactly like those I got from Target for $12. I don't understand people who spend $$$$ on shoes that look like they cost $.

i'm a fan of timberland boots - bought a pair a couple years ago and they're still going strong, might buy a new pair this year. bought a pair of mephisto boots last year, which are really nice looking, but the zipper got stuck/broken halfway up one of the boots by mid-march - it sucked! b/c there was still snow, obv. and i just didn't take them in for repair (i bought them over christmas while on the west coast, so coudln't go back to the store.) but i at least had my old boots to fall back on. they don't have the grippiest bottom but it's made of rubber so it's pretty decent. every winter i saw i'm going to buy those city cleats that you stretch over the bottom of yr boot but then i never do. i mean, b/c they're kinda dorky. maybe this year i will get over their dorkiness. but probably not.

i can always tell if yr shoes are from target
xpost

hmmm, you know what? I am pretty sure last year I was all "eff this nonsense, I am getting Timberlands" which are really not super pretty (I'm an office worker) but damnit, I can change my shoes when I get into work! I will have to investigate that store. Rubber is better for gripping ice than the hard plastic of my last boots! :P thanks!

which, i mean, who cares
my feet just never do well in or even fit cheap shoes. it's like a magnetic non-attraction thing. physics.
xpost

xpost musically, the target shoes are fun for a quick splurge but they destroy my feet (blisters, cramps) because they are not as well built as the more expensive (and durable) ones... I envy you for being able to wear them!

i hate myself for how picky i am about shoe quality/craftsmanship but i destroy a pair of $12 shoes in like 3 weeks.

i have pretty much destroyed a pair of $60 shoes this summer! and i didn't even wear them that much! (they were the pretty teal ones i got a couple of months ago. and which never really accommodated my toes. and which i said i wld stop wearing. and which i am wearing today.)

aside from looking a lot better, higher-quality materials last longer. the cute blue-violet "leather" flats i bought on a whim for $20 last month are already ruined, and it only took about half a dozen wearings.

re: timberlands - yeah most are pretty ugly - like these ones have a great shape and good sole but why all the patchwork crap? maddening.

oh finefine these come in pink! http://www.zappos.com/n/p/dp/18375997/c/716.html

i realize that these are pretty ugly but specs are good warm & comfortable - total xpost to 'gear' thread :/ but damn slipping around in the ice & snow for 6 months gets really old really fast

i have to not talk about boots now

OMFG those pink Timberlands (I always want to type Timbaland, without fail) are AWESOME!! I wonder if I could get away with that..

sorry for bringing up boot jonesing rrrobyn

haha i just don't want to be thinking abt winter just yet!
i knew you'd dig those :)

and which i said i wld stop wearing. and which i am wearing today.

That makes Laurel laugh. So does this:

A Kenneth Cole sandal is the Ike Turner of footwear. Okay, it sounds like one of my ill-advised flights of bad-metaphorical non-fancy, but check it out. The sandal comes on real strong, right? Makes your feet look gooooood, showers them with sweet looooove, gets all cute and mad when you flirt with a 9 West model, and girl! You can't believe you got so luuuuucky — at first. But when you've fallen for his line, looked the other way when he bled dye and gave you corns, you've bought a few pairs, boom — he'll start in calling your feet too wide and get on you about letting your arches go, and then when you make noises about maybe switching to Steve Madden he beats your feet bloody, and just when you've made up your mind to leave, the sandal comes around all "baby, I'm so sorry, I lost my head, you know how I get when you go across the street to look in the window at Fluevog, please forgive me, I brought you the new line for spring, and look at the straps, baby, look at the straps, I'm so sorry, baby, I love you" and your feet will sit in a tub of Epsom salts all sullen like "go to hell, no sandal treats me that way, love ain't supposed to hurt, I don't love you no more" and the sandal's all "I can't live without you, baby, don't leave me that way," and those straps would really make your ankles look like Rita Hayworth's, but your feet stay strong, "nuh uh, if you loved me you wouldn't tear me up so bad," and the sandal slinks to the door and says all pitifully, "All right, baby, I'll go…if that's what you really want," and your feet look down, and they start to cry, and they give in all "promise you'll never do it again," and the sandal promises, and he gives your feet tender leather lovin', and the straps make your ankles look great…and then one night the sandal turns on your little toe in a drunken rage and your foot's locking itself in the bathroom screaming "NO! NO!" and girlfriend, you know he ain't no good for you so RUN.

argh need shoes!!!!

no more target shoes allowed for me. not after they fall apart so fast and make feet tired!!! shoes have such a short life in city life!! ack!!!

woah kenneth cole!

bell, <3 those shoes!!!!

ohman that article is kinda brutal in its analogy but also i will admit pretty true. YES these shoes are fake leather! YES i was dumb to fall for them b/c they were so pretty and cute and i thought the pain was initially mild and wld go away. YES i hate the ongoing pain they cause my toes but yet i do keep wearing them! will never buy fake-leather again, promise to self. will replace these shoes with real, sensible, cute, long-term boyfriend i mean shoes.

lol sex and the city talkin

I love old Tomato Nation. Remind me sometime when it's topical to post a link to the Lake of Skirts with Pockets.

oh there's gotta be a thread to post that in somewhere

People who spent too much money on shoes try to justify it by pretending that all non-expensive shoes are death traps that give you blisters and scoliosis when you try them on. Some cheap shoes are bad and not worth the cost, but others are well made and last quite a while.

I could ask if we mean the same thing by "cheap" but I find I just don't care enough.

duly noted

Besides which a Kenneth Cole sandal is the opposite of cheap so while I do adore Ms Tomato Nation, I'm not totally sure what she's on about except that she likes a shoe company that doesn't make shoes for people with actual feet. Because I've tried on Kenneth Cole ankle straps and they were several inches short of actually going around my ankles.

Finefinemusic, I am HUEGS FAN of Merrell shoes, which are basically the only shoes I've ever owned that I can walk 4 miles a day in and still feel a-okay! Even compared to sneakers!

They have a fair number that aren't too squaresville:

http://www.merrell.com/Gallery/NZ/Womens-Casual-Footwear/Boots.aspx

I am big fan of PLAZA PEAK.

Oh, wait, you live in a land where you cld wear any of those. In winter here in New Mexico I can wear boots, but anything lined/sheepskin/etc still means calf & foot HEAT EXPLOSION.

plaza peak and spire peak look nice!

i do not generally like anything w/ the fur lining bc they remind me too much of uggz

http://www.sunsite.ualberta.ca/Projects/mimsy/CLTX/Thumb/1988/17-53_1.jpg

boots.. I wear size 10.5/11 myself.. I have a pair of charles david boots with prob 3.5" heel and they're actually pretty comfortable, though I wouldn't walk around in the snow with them or anything.

what about frye? they're well made and will last a long, long time. not cheap exactly

I don't know DC very well but women in NY will walk across sheet ice in 4" Costume National stiletto boots. It's kind of amazing.

When I lived in a nabe where lots of people didn't shovel, I promised self I'd buy Army/Navy paratrooper boots the next year, but then I moved. I really really love my Frye harness boots, which are now my winter staple.

oh it was merrell boots (not mephisto) - the tetra launch waterproof kind - that i bought last winter and on which the zipper broke! i am glad to hear you've had good luck with them tho, abbott - i guess one montreal winter was just too much for them :/ plaza peak doesn't appear to have zippers. it does appear to be $$ tho

oh how i want a pair of frye boots

I just got these for $100

http://www.zappos.com/images/737/7374122/6219-535658-p.jpg

Abbott: Yes, like Robert Plant I come from the land of the ice and snow... those boots look SO cute! I am worried though since Rrobyn's winters are only slightly more harsh than the winters I have to walk around in.. oooh, the Frye's are beautiful but expensive as hell, I would have to wear those for 5 years to justify their purchase! That may not be impossible though, as I am looking to go to university (as a mature student) soon...

I bought a cheap ($80) pair of boots three years ago that are very similar to these & still kind of love them, but I had to wear plastic bags over my socks last year to keep my feet dry:

http://www.thefryecompany.com/Product-Women-Boots-Harness-77300DBN.aspx
Those of course are $198 Frye..

Yeah, I am not a NYC ice heel walker :D I wish.. but in 4" heels I'd be 6'5" and if I felt myself slipping I could just grab THE TOP OF THE BUILDING to get my balance so maybe I'll give it a try! ;)

I am okay with an inside fur lining because my feet are ALWAYS COLD when I wait for the bus - the bus I take sometimes comes 45 minutes late in the winter due to traffic and general idiocy :( Maybe I will befriend some Inuit and learn to make boots of out seal pelts or something..

wow I screwed up that image:

http://www.thefryecompany.com/ProductImages/12820088554343877300_DBN_multi.jpg

oh also with the merrells there are little covers that go over metal snaps on the decorate strap parts on the boot and a few of those covers totally came off. so yeah i am fully skeptical of merrell boots even if they have some cute styles :/

lol @ heels in winter - so common here too. for me, it is like watching magic in action - i have no idea how these women do it. but my walking style is long and heel-focused, or something, and i hate having to take shorter steps or walk slower just b/c of shoe choice and weather conditions. i slip around a lot regardless. and my friends make fun of me for my dangerous winter walking. and so i should just get those unstylish cleat things, eh

yes rrrobyn i think i have the same walking style as you. i am a mega long stride speed walker and hate how heels make me have to take smaller steps.

I think you should get luxxxxxxxx leather boots and then put crampons over top of them like most fashionable arctic explorer ever.

p.s. okay guys help me put the cute fake-leather shoes of pain in the garbage. i actually swore at them as i was riding home yesterday b/c they were pinching the side of my foot right below my baby toe and it's like this awful nerve-type pain that goes right up to my brain. i need yr support b/c i will convince myself that they're good for standing around or for walking short distances but in fact no, they are always somewhat uncomfortable no matter what. but teal! and cute! they match things i wear! :) :( :*(

haha i do like the fashionable arctic explorer look - why sacrifice fashion for functionality & survival?!!

heels make me feel like, handicapped or something, when i am walking to the train, esp because the route for me includes lots of pitted/messed up sidewalk.

you need to accidentally on purpose spill red wine on those shoes, rrobyn! OR find some sort of decorative use for them inside your home, like as a catch-all for earrings (?) or something else (planter??) that will make people say "Oh my god, that's such a good idea, I am totally jealous" and then you will feel totally righteous!

I am also a really fast walker and hate the little steps in heels. Oddly enough, I can run really well in heels though! (for the bus, etc) I never ever run in the winter though due to stupid ice phobias/mental blocks.

Rrobyn, take them to the thrift and have a maniacal cackle every time you think about what they are doing to their next poor unfortunate mistress.