I bought a pair of sandals recently before heading off on a business trip. They were adorable - black straps intertwined together to create a pretty pattern, drawing the eye down to my freshly pedicured toes. A narrow wedge heel brought my petite frame up a few precious inches. They were works of art, really. And so comfortable as I strode 'round the store for a grand total of forty-seven seconds. A prerequisite, since I had alot of walking to do when I got to my destination.
When I got to my where I was going, I slipped on my new sandals and emerged from my hotel, ready for the day. I walked and walked and walked in what seemed like sub-tropical heat. My feet got sweaty and slid around inside my beautiful sandals, and those lovely, delicate straps suddenly became instruments of torture, sawing away at my big toes until bloody gouges striped across my once-pristine feet. I was so desperate to end the bloodshed that I ducked into a discount store and bought a pair of cheap runners to give my feet a break. All in the name of aesthetically splendid footwear.
Why do we do this to ourselves? Hobbling around like you've suffered an incapacitating leg wound pretty much negates the sexiness of a pair of spike heels - as do the half-dozen band-aids currently covering my feet because of sandal-inflicted blisters and scrapes.
We, as women, need to find that fine balance between agonizingly sexy heels and our grandmas' orthopedic hush puppies. What to do?
1 - enact legislation that forces shoe designers to slap warning labels on their products about the potential damage they might inflict on unsuspecting feet - complete with hideously graphic pics of mangled heels and blistered toes, like those blackened lung pics on Canadian cigarette packages
2 - Implement a "trial run" rule for shoe purchases, allowing women to return shoes that cause them grievous bodily harm within the first month of wearing
3 - start a "walk and tell" website - a forum for women to report on shoe-inflicted injuries caused by specific brands and styles of shoes, warning other women away from the potential dangers
Of course, if we were all sensible, we'd simply turn in our patent leather, pointy-toed, pain-in-the-pedicure pumps and tie on our trusty, sensible tennies each morning.
Will we? Naahhhh..... we'll march (or hobble) onwards in our treasured, treacherous t-straps, or those hot leopard-print flats that nip painfully at our heels. Why? Because sometimes feeling good isn't about having healthy heels, it's about the confidence we feel when we step into that particular pair and step out to face the world.
