Every time I ride the subway into the city from my place it’s about £2 roundtrip (a little over $4 USD). However, it only takes me 45 minutes to walk to school, so I’ve been walking most of the time. My erstwhile comfortable casual shoes (Czech made Bata) aren’t made for pounding the pavement though. So, this morning, I set out on what became a small quest for new shoes.
It’s easy to find shoes; in a given city, on a walk from here to anywhere, one is likely to pass a dozen shoes shops. Each will have full windows of the latest fashion or discount pair. It is, unfortunately, difficult to find shoes if one is looking for a pair that weren’t made in a sweatshop somewhere in Asia.
I went from shop to shop, searching and lamenting my sore feet (probably not the best idea to shoe shop with sore feet). Finally, I came upon a store stocking New Balance shoes (made in England). This was the first shoe store I’ve been in that has a “museum” to a certain type of shoe. There is a room in this store with a timeline of New Balance history, how they still manufacture their shoes in England, the innovations, etc. It was especially informative (and I feel like I may have joined some kind of cult—with 10% off on sale).
So now I have a pair of sporty English made New Balance shoes to trounce around town. We’ll see if my legs and feet fare better now.