Shoe Shopping

I've worn the same shoes for about 20 years now.  No, not the same exact pair, I've had several pair over the years.  They are completely black tennis shoes, leather, and high top.  Well, not the high tops that I remember from the eighties, they come up around but not above my ankle.  I remember a doctor a couple years ago remarking to me that he liked the type of shoes I was wearing, they would help my back, or knee, or whatever problem I was having at the time.  I like these shoes because they are comfortable, and the completely black color lets me get by wearing them for any occasion.  Whenever I get a new pair, the old pair gets demoted to yard work or other uses when you would rather not wear your 'good' shoes.  The style has changed slightly over the years, but it would be hard to tell unless you had them side by side as I have many times.  So when my current pair started squeaking, meaning it was getting moisture in the sole when it is wet out, I started looking for my next pair.  I didn't like what I was about to find out.


They changed the color of the soles!  It was no longer the black tennis shoe that I could wear for any occasion.  Why, after all these years, would they change it?  And now what the hell am I going to do?  Shoe shopping has been so easy for me for so long.  All it used to take was a very short trip to the shoe store, I didn't even need to try them on.  Recently the internet has made that even easier - click click and it shows up at my door.  I don't think I even want to consider the new style, which means I need to do some actual shoe shopping for the first time in ages.  I dread going in to one of those large chain shoe stores and emerging hours later with shoes that I settled for.  But do I trust shopping for something so intimate to my daily comfort online?  I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet, it's all just so much to take in!

Tears.  Drama.  Anger.  Resignation.  Acceptance.  Sigh.  Eff you, Reebok.  PTFO.