Eric writes about the shoes
<p>Aa a finger exercise in writing, I decided to submit a piece to <a href="http://www.shoeblogs.com/wordpress/2005/09/07/essay-contest/">Manolo&#8217;s<br />
Essay Contest</a>.  The constraints &mdash; low word count, a subject<br />
that really doesn&#8217;t interest me much &mdash; appealed to me.  I<br />
figured if I could produce something interesting under those<br />
circumstances, it would be an accomplishment.</p>
<p>Here it is.  You be the judge&#8230;</p>
<p><span id="more-210"></span></p>
<p>I&#8217;m a geek, not a fashion plate.  I don&#8217;t think about shoes a lot,<br />
but I know what I like &#8212; and when I do think about shoes, I&#8217;m<br />
profoundly grateful for some of the changes that have come about in my<br />
lifetime.  I&#8217;m thinking, more than anything else, of the way athletic<br />
shoes have taken over the world.</p>
<p>When I was a kid back in the 1960s and early 1970s, &#8220;shoes&#8221; still<br />
meant, basically, &#8220;hard leather oxfords&#8221;.  Ugly stiff things with a<br />
high-maintainence finish that would scuff if you breathed on them.<br />
What I liked was sneakers.  But in those bygone days you didn&#8217;t get<br />
to wear sneakers past a certain age, unless you were doing sneaker<br />
things like playing basketball.  And I sucked at basketball.</p>
<p>I revolted against the tyranny of the oxford by wearing desert boots,<br />
which back then weren&#8217;t actually boots at all but a kind of high-top<br />
shoe with a suede finish and a grip sole.  These were just barely<br />
acceptable in polite company; in fact, if you can believe this, I was<br />
teased about them at school.  It was a more conformist time.</p>
<p>I still remember the first time I saw a shoe I actually liked and<br />
wanted to own, around 1982.  It was called an Aspen, and it was built<br />
exactly like a running shoe but with a soft suede upper.  Felt like<br />
sneakers on my feet, looked like a grownup shoe from any distance.<br />
And I still remember exactly how my Aspens &#8212; both of them &#8212;<br />
literally fell apart at the same moment as I was crossing Walnut<br />
Street in West Philly.  These were not well-made shoes.  I had to limp<br />
home.</p>
<p>But better days were coming. In the early 1990s athletic shoes<br />
underwent a kind of Cambrian explosion, proliferating into all kinds<br />
of odd styles.  Reebok and Rockport and a few other makers finally<br />
figured out what I wanted &#8212; athletic-shoe fit and comfort with a<br />
sleek all-black look I could wear into a client&#8217;s office, and no<br />
polishing or shoe trees or any of that annoying overhead!</p>
<p>I look around me today and I see that athletic-shoe tech has taken over.<br />
The torture devices of my childhood are almost a memory.  Thank you,<br />
oh inscrutable shoe gods.  Thank you Rockport.  It&#8217;s not a big thing<br />
like the Internet, but comfortable un-fussy shoes have made my life<br />
better.</p>
