My hubs isn't really a true, "metro-sexual" as he isn't into hair gel, skinny man jeans, murses, skinny ties, designer duds, or almost anything at Banana Republic. Well, the last one is only true because his massive and broad shoulders barely fit in their polo shirts, never mind any of their fitted shirts! But, my hubs is somewhat a connoisseur of quality shoes.
Flash back six years ago and the hubs had just picked up his first pair of Johnston & Murphy dress shoes. I think he got them on sale at an outlet for close to $100. I thought he was kind of nuts to be dropping that amount on a pair of plain Jane men's dress shoes, but that was my own personal opinion. If I had a $100 to spend on shoes I would have tried to get two or three pairs of Nine West shoes from an outlet.
Spring a head six years and take a peak in our separate closets (yes, you read that right! it's a key to marital bliss in our house) and the hubs still has the same pair of brown shoes whereas the vast collection I had compiled during college and graduate school of Nine West and Bandolino shoes has diminished to just a few remaining pairs. And the ones that have survived... they weren't my "favorites" by any stretch of the imagination. The survivors are those shoes that I don't wear all that often either due to comfortableness or they're strictly special occasion type shoes.
So in my corner was well more than $150 spent on shoes and almost nothing to shoe for it. I used to buy on average somewhere between 4-6 pairs of non-athletic shoes a year. Say the average price tag was $50, (way too low, but easier for math) and I was spending between $200-$300 a year on shoes. And they wouldn't last! The hubs, on the other hand, would buy maybe 1 pair of nice dress shoes a year. He was spending less money a year on shoes and his shoes were outlasting my shoes.
Two important things happened this summer that led me to drastically review my shoe purchases.
1. I started running a lot and I expected a whole lot more comfort from my shoes. Plantar fasciitis then dictated that my shoes be extremely comfortable. I was totally screwed when I only had one pair of flats in my closet and had to plan my wardrobe around flats and flip flops :(
2. The hubs wished for a pair of Allen Edmonds "Park Avenue" shoes for our 3rd wedding anniversary.
They're cute and all for men's shoes, but they're $325. Yes, $325 for a pair of plan shoes. There's no fancy heel, no cool embellishments, no frills, zilch, nadda, nothing! Of course, us being us we found them on sale at Jos A Banks for $250 and used a huge Ebates credit to make them much more affordable, but still! That is a lot of money to spend on ONE pair of shoes.
Well, wouldn't you know that when we were discussing the shoes the hubs went over to his closet and pulled out those ol' Johnston & Murphy shoes and said, "these have lasted for 6 years and I've beat them to hell. Those Park Avenues are the same shoes Obama wears and I bet they'll last longer than 6 years."
I hate it when he's right, especially about shoes. He loves his Park Avenues and for Christmas I gifted him with two more pairs of Allen Edmonds. Don't worry, I found them on sale!
So, in preparation for further bouncing along on this thing called "being an adult" I'm slowly going to upgrade the shoes in my closet. The greatest part is the hubs is fully on board. :)
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