Shopping for Shoes

My dress shoes tend to start stinking after a while! It does not matter if they are leather, there is just so much "feet" a pair of shoes can take. Well, I DO wear them every day at work. I generally only own a black pair and a brown pair, so between the two, they get a lot of wear!

My feet hurt a lot and so, although I wore heels a lot as a teenager, I prefer the comfort of very flat shoes in my mid-age years. This is a photo of my dress shoe. As always, I never wear out my shoes, I only stink them out or get tired of them.

I have trouble finding shoes in my size because, since I have given birth to three children, my feet have gotten wide. I have to have a wide width shoe. In addition, I wear a size 6 show. Can you imagine that my wedding shoes were a size 5? Yep, I not only blame that extra length and width of my foot on my boys, but also that round area in the middle of my body!

I have been keeping my eye out for a new pair of shoes for at least a year (since I cannot find them, I grab them when I see them and often look for them). The stores are selling fewer and fewer of my size. One sales person at JC Penney even told me that they were discontinuing my size in their stores in favor of bringing in size 11 and 12's because the demand was higher for that size.

I decided I MUST be able to locate a pair online and set out on a venture to do so yesterday. Surely I can get shoes SOMEWHERE!

There are three sites which the readers here found for me that I want to share with you.

I was already aware of zappos.com as it has been recommended to me before and, surely enough, it was recommended again yesterday. There certainly did have some very cute shoes in my size; however, most were over $70! Wow. I don't think I've ever spent over $30 for a pair of shoes and, most often, less than $20. I do like some of the shoes there, but I am going to have to get myself a shoe savings fund started first!

Footsmart.com was also recommended and I did find some shoes I liked in my size at this site, so I am going to keep it in mind for the future. However, I am often timid of ordering from sites I have never heard of before. I do see addresses for the company in Georgia and Tennessee, which does help to validate them for me. However, once again, the prices are very high.

I decided to go with Endless.com and I think I have found my new favorite website! Endless is created by Amazon and you can log in with your already existing Amazon account. There seems to be comfort to me in familiarity with a company such as Amazon. In addition, I was able to purchase two pairs of shoes for the price that I would pay for one at the other two sites.



Can you believe it? Less than 24 hours later, the doorbell rang and my shoes arrived! The shipping and handling was free too! Of course, we all know that it is built into the cost of the product, but I like it that way.

The shoes both fit well with one exception. I have a high instep and they are rubbing and making the top of my foot red. I think I am going to go with it for a little while in hopes that they will stretch out and stop hurting. I have had shoes before that would not stretch out over time in this same area. They choice as to whether or not to keep them or send them back is a difficult one, especially since my choices are very limited.

Tonight I am going to try this trick on my new shoes. I understand that I can stretch the instep if I warm them up where I wish them to stretch with the hair drier and then apply pressure with a hard object. I am going to try my hairbrush.

Here are a few other ideas I may try also. Watch the videos!

Ice?


Shoe stretch solution? Where do I get that? I have a shoe stretcher that I got from a garage sale, but I've never been able to get it to work well. Alcohol? Easy to try.


I have been poking around Endless and see that the shoes I ordered are already sold out! There are new ones also.

I think I could get addicted to shopping for shoes, especially since I've never been able to buy any before.




So, here are my $15 - $20 pair of tennis shoes that I have had forever from Payless. They look ugly. I'm not sure they help the pain in my feet at all.

Now, I need to find a new pair of tennis shoes, but I have no idea what brand name is the best. I understand that different brands are better for different feet problems, but what is best for me? I may have to go shopping at some local stores and ask their opinions and try some on.

I do know that shoes with arches actually hurt my feet. I'm sorry, but you cannot push up an arch where one is not there to push up. It feels like you're walking on a ball stuck on the bottom of your foot. You can imagine how that hurts after a while.

My husband's feet are the ultimate example of flat feet. My youngest son was born with those same flat feet and that is why he was able to start walking at the young age of eight and a half months. My poor boys are doomed!