After getting some shopping lessons in previous weeks, I did some shopping on my own on Wednesday…over the Internet. Though, I had good reason to shop in the virtual world: vegetarian (i.e., non-leather) dress shoes are practically impossible to find in stores. So I did some google searches, and within 30-minutes I was the proud owner of two new pairs of shoes.
When I arrived home yesterday I was pleasantly surprised to find the first pair of shoes waiting for me…well, it was a pleasant surprise until I opened the box. Damn are they ugly. I’ll get at least one more real-life opinion before sending them back, but feel free to take a look yourself and offer your advice. Of course, the pictures on the Internet don’t look half-bad, which is mainly why I bought them. The problem is that the front of the shoes are very square, thus making my feet look big, which is just weird in general. Hopefully, the other pair I bought will be more of what I expect.
On the good side of Internet shopping, I just received my ergonic mouse and my right wrist has never felt better (well, in a post-6.170 world at least).
Bookroll
- Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish: A Novel
- David Rakoff
- 3 wds: Rhythmic Raw Rakoff
- The Signal and the Noise
- Nate Silver
- 3 wds: accessible, insightful, broad
- The Casual Vacancy
- J.K. Rowling
- 3 wds: captivating, political, believable
- The Black Banners: The Inside Story of 9/11 and the War against al-Qaeda
- Neil Shah
- 3 wds: Captivating, informative, redacted
- The Blank Slate
- Steven Pinker
- 3 wds: Rant, lengthy, correct
- The Trial
- Franz Kafka
- 3 wds: Disheartening, linear, skippable
More Books ยป
ok… no offense, but those look ugly in the picture. the soles just look… unflattering. the top doesn’t look that bad, but you can see it from the front and side.
the other pair look normal though. :)
First, none taken. Second, no one sees the soles so I didn’t bother to judge that aspect of the shoes. Third, you’ll get to see them in person so stop biasing yourself ;)
Oh Aaron- maybe the first pair look cuter on broadband internet (did I mention I hate being on dial-up lately?), but somehow I doubt it. The second pair are definitely way cooler. Maybe you could give the first pair to Dick Cheney for his next duck hunt with Scalia. They look like duck hunting shoes. You know Birkenstock makes both dress shoes and non-leather shoes. Hopefully those categories are not mutually exclusive.
After a thorough search of Birkenstock.com, I’d like to make an addendum to my earlier comment: Apparently non-leather and dress shoes are mutually exclusive categories. However, when summer rolls around I do know where you can get some nice non-leather sandals. It’s summer here in Texas. Just so you know.
try this one stop shopping for vegan shoes
http://www.mooshoes.com/
PS: What’s so bad about big feet?
Rachel,
it’s pretty warm here too, so it’s not as if Texas has a monopoly on heat. And yes, as you have discovered, for the most part dress shoes have leather in them.
Happened upon these two pairs at the recommended MooShoes.com … comments welcome given my previous encounter.
Good choices! After taking a peek at the Moo Shoes site, I was going to recommend one of those, as well as these. I also like these but under absolutely no circumstances should you buy them because you are most certainly not a metrosexual and you’d look silly if you tried to pretend. I think the same goes for Birkenstocks and you not being crunchy.
On the other hand, why buy a second pair? I think your art can wear the same [shoes] seven days a week ’cause your art don’t seem to care about what other people think. ;-)
I need two pair: one for work, one for out-on-the-town casual–thus, giving me three main pairs: the two aforementioned and seakers. I figure that’s a reasonable number even if my art’s not “built like that.”
(And I give you an ‘A’ for effort for embedding links into you comment, but you need to enclose web addresses in double quotes. Don’t worry I fixed it for you.)
a) Aaron those shoes are damn ugly in the picture, i agree with Enjaborg.
b) i don’t understand why it’s so hard, probably b/c you’re a guy. i have lots of non leather dress shoes but wm shoes are made of many diff materials.
c) try sketchers, they make shoes that look dressy but are made of pleather or plastic leather (same thing? i dunno?) or i’m not kidding here, go to payless, cheap shoes made of plastic type leather. but i guess you want something that lasts? i’ll have to take you shopping one day. afterall i am le fashiongrrl! :)
scratch the sketchers idea. girl sketchers can be nonleather but boy sketchers are leather it seems. sucks to be a boy now i guess. roamed around hunting for links, haven’t hit them all, try these?
http://www.ethicalwares.com/
an example of a nice mooshoe: http://www.mooshoes.com/edc-cgi/moostore.cgi?user_action=detail&catalogno=116
http://www.veganline.com/untitledframeset.htm
http://www.ecobusinesslinks.com/links/vegetarian_shoes.htm
http://www.flashnet.it/vegetalia/
good luck.
The shoes are fine. Squared off is trendy. And if I know you to be anything it’s a trend-loving guy. It’s all about being able to pull it off. The more you think about them the worse it’ll be. Wear them, the first person that compliments you on them, and you’ll forget about the whole thing.
Wow: my Treo600 and Prius purchases have apparently given off a “trendy” vibe. (I did notice that those two products are used by Joshua Lyman and Rory Gilmore respectively.) So apparently I need to set the record straight: I am not trendy. On rare occassions, it may appear otherwise. But not in general.
Who knew vegetarian shoes would provoke such a response?
Oh, fashiongrrl, Payless plastics are a bad idea–smelly feet result since the shoes don’t “breathe.” Learned that one the hard way.