Is Walking Expensive?

So I walk a lot.  In fact, I walk pretty much everywhere all the time.  That tends to be the case when you don't have a car.

Other than my muscles, which have now adjusted to walking miles every day, my other casualties are my shoes.

My trusty Vans, still in service.

You can see my current casual shoes above.  I bought them in 2009 and you can see they're still in good shape overall.  No discoloration and even the logo inside is still visible.  I took good care of them and they show it.

Unfortunately, New York has decided it is time for something a bit more robust.

Say it isn't so!

I can now put my finger through the bottom, behind the insole.  Rocks come up through the bottom, which is bad.  Water comes up too, which is much worse.  Without rubber, that means I can't even walk over damp concrete.  That pretty much means the end of them.  Sad day.

Also sad is that my Rockport Business Lite Slip-ons, which have also served me well since 2009 met the same fate right before Las Vegas.  A few posts ago I mentioned buying some Allen Edmonds dress shoes for that very reason.  At least those can be resoled indefinitely.

It makes sense that if you walk more, you go through shoes more quickly.  On a non-school day, I probably put 20x-50x more distance than I did in Texas.  School days are lighter, at maybe 5x-10x more steps than Texas.  Still, that means I'll go through shoes 10x-20x faster!

My athletic shoes are the same ones I had at TCU, so apparently that means I don't work out nearly enough.  My shoes normally last 3+ years apparently, but that may be changing.  We'll see how long my new ECCO shoes last.

ECCO Bradley Slip-ons

I've always gone with Rockport, but the salesman at Harry's Shoes swore by ECCO and I know they have a good reputation.  Harry's is an old-time shoe store where the salesmen are just that, not high school kids or just bring you different sizes.  These guys knew all about the shoes.  My salesman could have been my grandfather, so I gather he had been at this a while.

They're much classier than Vans, but still casual enough to wear for everyday outings.  I'm getting old I guess.  They don't even make L.A. Lights in my size.