Buying Shoes....ARRRGHHH!

My sister has been having a hard time lately finding shoes that will help her get through the day with as little discomfort as possible. She suffers from fibromyalgia and does childcare so she spends most of the day on the go and in pain.

You would think that with all the different shoe companies around that make walking or shoes for all kind of specialized activities it would be easier. It's not. The main problem lies with size.

Now you need to understand that the women in my family have big feet. I wear a women's size twelve and my sisters a ten and a half and a ten respectively. The manufacturers of women's shoes stop half sizing at size ten. Did you know that? Did you know that women who wear larger than a size ten pay more for their shoes than our sisters with smaller feet?

Forget really high fashion styles. I'm talking your normal athletic footwear. We used to call them sneakers but they're so much more than that these days. If you can find sizes over 10 you might pay $5 to $10 more for them. Hush Puppies is a very popular brand and finding anything over an eleven for a woman is difficult. Very difficult if on top of having big feet lengthwise you also have wide feet. It becomes impossible. I was just checking out Rockports and their women's shoes go to 11's but men go to size 16. For the longest time I bought men's shoes from them. You can't tell me that they have machinery that can make a man's but not a woman's shoe.

We women are crazy that we allow shoe companies to walk all over us (pun intended). If your feet are narrow you pay more. If you wear a very popular size you pay more. If you wear a large size you pay more. If you want a well made dress shoe you not only pay more you are talked into wearing shoes that can cause injury to your back or ankles just because they might be stylish. Would any man worth his salt be talked into wearing shoes that elevate his height 5 inches so his legs and butt would look better?  

Ah well that is my rant for today. I hope you all have a good night and a good day tomorrow and that you think about this blog the next time you buy a pair of shoes..