Why your shoes dont have a driver's license

You may recall I am crazy for maintenance.
That's maintenance of my clothes, shoes, bags & jewellery. Cleaning, polishing, mending, dusting, packing, storage, organising, cataloguing etc etc. I love everything about this concept - it's like a religious experience for me.  heheheh.

If however you look at a pair of chocolate textured Bruno Maglis I own and you may be surprised that I just said that....because they look pretty worn & unloved...

In fact, they look like they have been through WWIII....the below photo doesnt show surface dirt - it shows horrible abrasions to the leather......

The right heel base has worn right through to the plastic, all the backs are badly scuffed.

I have worn them many consecutive days (no "rest days" in between), so the shape of my toes have imprinted on the shoe outer and that makes them look icky.

How could I do this to my babies?

Should we call Shoe DOCS (Department of Community Services)?

I am a bad mum.

Or am I?

In my defense, I need to give you some background - 

I bought these from the David Jones warehouse in Birkenhead Point, Sydney in around 2002.

The box lowest price was $218.75, but I would normally only buy when they had "red spot specials" like an extra 50% off the lowest marked price (which they did often)....so I sure I paid around $100 odd. Happy Dance!

Italian leather, the original was $299 (blacked out), their season is SS1998 (top right).

Surprised I keep the boxes, even after 10 years? Dont be - its all part of maintenance.

The box keeps them dust free & protected from pressure of other goodies (no pile of crushed shoes thrown at the bottom of the wardrobe for me). 

I realise some of you may not have the storage room, but if you do, boxes are gold.

Like all my shoes with a single (non platform) sole, I took them straight to the cobbler to get a topey sole put on the shoe.

But instead of going to my trusted cobbler in the city, I decided to try a local Mr Minit in the suburbs (with whom I didnt have a relationship - that's a professional shoe relationship....).

After a lengthy chat about the quality of their work, I left six shoes with them for topeys - big mistake, big mistage, huge! They had a relatively inexperienced fellow doing the job & each shoe came back with a knife cut along the base of the leather all around the shoe near the sole. I was devastated. 

...see the fine cut running along the leather? its all around the shoe.....devastated.....

I had willfully neglected my babies.

 

So now I had 6 damaged pairs - Mr Minit refunded the cost of the soles, but I didnt pursue the cost of the shoes through Fair Trading (in hindsight, I should have...).

I have worn the other 5 pairs here & there, but knowing of the damage (even though no one else notices it) is so disappointing.

As for this Magli pair - they were always a bit squeezy to start with - so I decided to put them in the queue as my driving shoes.

No, I am not talking about J.P.Tod's - the Italian shoes with the rubber dots on the bottom......

I am talking about any old shoe that has seen better days which I dont consider good enough to pass onto goodwill. 

I am talking about shoes that I only wear for driving, so that none of my other shoes need to be worn for driving.

As for the queue, well, occasionally there may be 2 or 3 driving shoes in the queue. When I wear one out completely, I throw it out & start using the next one (as a driving shoe). gee, I'm thrifty.....

I also use my driving shoes as wet weather shoes - as I never wear my loved shoes in the rain - I carry the good shoes in a bag until I have gone indoors. Even if it looks like it will rain, I take the driving shoes with me.

Make sense?

I know anyone out there who is super busy may be rolling their eyes right now - but its just what I do. 


The Maglis have been my driving shoes for about 12 months now & I dont recall ever having worn them in the rain - but look at how cruel the driving is to shoes. Imagine if you had to subject the shoes you really liked to this?  No, No, No. I'd want to call Shoe DOCS.


I keep the Maglis in the garage, next to the car so they are easy to slip on and off. 

So what now lives in the box?

Meet:

Marni toe capped mary janes from Ebay-land.

They are tan with a paintbrush effect on the leather with two cute buttons (red & green) on each straps. 


Marni is known for its quirkiness - & these babies are that to a tee.

& now with topey sole from my city cobbler, all perfect & pretty. Definitely not driving shoes.

Notice the cute rabbit (formed by dots) on the sole? - that's an adorable Marni trademark...


The moral:  

Your shoes dont have a driver's license because driving is bad for their health.

If you can, keep an old pair of shoes near the car for driving - even if your car is an automatic, you'll ruin nice shoes  much faster than if you dont use them for driving.