Shoes: Cute vs Comfortable

I have my own sense of style, which depending on the day is dressed down in jeans and a rock 'n' roll t-shirt or dressed up in a girly vintage dress very early 90s babydoll Courtney Love. I've pretty much been rocking these looks since I was 12. But in my late teens/early 20s, I went through a goth/club girl phase (it was quite the identity crisis). During that time period I wore shoes like this every night. (And wave hi to my cat, Kaspar in the background.)

(oh and you can click to enlarge for better detail on all of these pics. The pair on the right has constellations on them, still sooooo in love with those)

In fact I had pair of 6 inch black crushed velvet platform boots that went up almost to my knee. Unfortunately (actually, fortunately for me...) there are no pictures of me in them and apparently I got rid of them even though I am a packrat when it comes to saving old favorite clothes and I still have my first pair of Converse, Courtney Love-style Mary Janes, Doc Martens, and my favorite combat boots from high school, which are these (along with my other favorite high school accessories, the army jacket and the sticker covered Hello Kitty lunch box. Can you tell I was a teenage riot grrrl?)

But back to the platform heels that I was wearing at nineteen. I wore them nightly. I danced in them for hours. I even drove in them. Sometimes I drove all the way from Madison, Wisconsin, where I was living at the time to visit my mother in Chicago. And she would freak out. "You're going to screw up your knees doing that!" she'd say (and I did stop driving in heels once I started to feel weird pains in my knees). She'd also tell me that I was going to break my ankle (never did, no matter how intoxicated I might have been while wearing them, lucky!) and that eventually I wouldn't be able to wear shoes like that any more, my feet just wouldn't tolerate it. CURSE HER! She was right!!!!!

I'm going to blame my job for this one. When I started bartending, I quickly realized that if I was going to be on my feet all night I would have to be comfortable. I also learned that if you work on your feet for a few years, your shoe size goes up and shoes just don't fit as comfortably as before.

I can still rock these Mary Janes when I am dressed up, though I was very frustrated a few weeks ago when the shiny pair on the left (only 20$ at Target! and non-leather of course because I am vegan and never buy leather shoes) which have never ever failed me gave me two huge blisters and my husband had to give me a piggy back ride home because I could barely walk!

So mostly, I wear these shoes:

The comfortable, butt-kicking black boots that go with everything are a must have for every rock n roll girl. Those are the engineer boots from Vegetarian Shoes, which I bought here. Yes, they were expensive but a good pair of boots are the one thing I will spend a lot of money on. Dress shoes look like crap fast (at least mine do) and sneakers wear out, but boots can last many years. I can wear those to bartend in and walk over cities in and I wear them constantly until it gets too hot out. Converse of course have been my faithful shoe since sixth grade, back when my peers mocked me for wearing them. (two years later they were cool. I'm still slightly bitter about this.) HOWEVER any regular Converse wearer knows that when it comes to support, they SUCK. I don't know how people ever played basketball in these guys without killing their heels and their arches. So I rarely work in those. Instead I bartend in the Vans at the front of the pic which are more cushioned though I still add a heel insert since my heels tend to hurt. And the Vans are a recent addition.

These were my work shoes forever and they were perfect and I think the cutest sneakers ever. (My cat Lars even loves them, he is trying to be pictured with them.) Hearts and skulls = AWESOME! But alas Rocket Dog stopped making them. Damn you, Rocket Dog!

Summer is the hardest time of year for me to keep feet cool and comfortable. I'm super picky about flipflops. They have to have a soft fabric in between the toes or it chafes and I hate it. But I found these this year and love them and should have bought five pairs. The worn-to-death canvas Mary Janes with the skulls (can you tell I have a skull thing?) were my absolute favorite summer shoe. They can be worn casual or dressy. I love canvas Mary Janes or those little black velvet Chinese slippers.

But I was soooooooooooooo mad because apparently the canvas Mary Jane is not currently in fashion. I could not find them ANYWHERE this summer. Annoying because I prefer flats to heels now (yeah, Mom, you were right...), but I don't like flats that don't have some sort of strap. I think they make my feet look funny. (It's probably just all of those years of wearing strappy shoes.) So instead I ended up with these.

They are cute yes. But I have worn the pair on the left only once because they blistered the hell out of my feet despite seeming comfortable at the store. The other pair is slightly better, but I'm still getting blisters so they are not the every day shoes I wanted them to be.

After shopping for these I realized that after being a shoe person for years (I have two closets full and probably only wear a handful of pairs anymore... basically the ones I showed you.), I kind of hate shoes now. I want cute shoes, but I'm not willing to hurt myself for fashion anymore and apparently my feet are much more prone to aching and blistering now. (Crap, this means I'm old, doesn't it?)

So what about you? Are you a shoe person? Do you pick style over comfort? Or are you more like me? Or have you found the magical pair of cute, comfortable (non-leather) shoes or do you know how to prevent blisters? Because if you have, please share! You'll be my new BFF!

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