MetaChat is an informal place for MeFites to touch base and post, discuss and
chatter about topics that may not belong on MetaFilter. Questions? Check the FAQ. Please note: This is important.
12 August 2010
Anyone Own a Pair Of These ? I've recently met a couple of people who say that these are the most comfortable shoes that they have ever worn . sure they're ugly, but i'm tempted to try them out. has anyone else tried them ?
A guy at work has them and he likes them a lot. He did stop wearing them because nobody was paying attention to what he was saying - they just wanted to ask about the shoes.
I get ads for them as blog spam all the time, so I have a pretty negative opinion of them. I think, "You provide material support and comfort to my enemy!" every time I see a pair.
The problem with wearing them is that you quickly become one of Those People.
Everyone I've ever personally come across who was wearing them were pretty much douches about them and Would Not Stop Talking about how wonderful they are and blah blah.
Oh the flip side, when I'm not wearing heels I'm barefoot. Or longing to be barefoot. That part of me reeeeally wants to try a pair.
I got all excited about those Terra Planas looking at their website until I realised that, bloody typical of UK shoe sellers, they don't do half-sizes.
I kind of want to try these, as a couple medical professionals have told me I need to be waling barefoot as much as possible. They sure are ugly, though.
I'm trying to figure out where it would be appropriate to wear these. Not to work. Not out at night. Not anywhere where you want to be taken seriously. Maybe for gardening or the beach?
I run right now in Nike Frees, but my goal is to get a pair of Vibrams (running version) and run in those instead. I like the idea of a pair for locker rooms wear too. Will stick with regular bare feet for yoga, slippers for at home, and my usual heels for work, though.
I saw these (or something like these) for the first time a few months ago and though I rolled my eyes, I can sortakinda understand the appeal. I go around barefoot all the time, which means my feet are rough as cheap leather and often dirty --- too dirty to slip into shoes without washing first. Also, bees.* It would be handy to have something to slip on that's as comfortable as going barefoot.
Just yesterday, I was remembering the semester when I moved from concrete-jungle Houston to a grassy campus in a small New England town. I walked everywhere barefoot for the first month or two, and carried a pair of ballet slippers tucked in a pocket to slip on before I entered buildings that required shoes, or if I needed to cross a gravel lot.
But then, I'm sure I was one of Those People at that point in my young dumb life.
* This will now be my new default add-on to any string of remarks: "Also, bees."
the mister and I each have a pair Vibrams for trail running and hiking and gardening and whatnot. They are indeed incredibly ugly, but they've cured my shinsplints problems that I've had for the past two decades, and thus allowed me to run again.
Yep, I'm one of "those people" apparently. I've got several pairs and wear them almost exclusively. Your first couple of weeks of wearing them are a bit miserable but after that, you won't want to wear anything else.
You can't live your life worrying about whether something you want to do will make you into one of "those people."
That's a true thing. Just BE. That can be hard to remember.
gomichild, I'm not aware of any specific reference; I interpreted "Those People" to mean the phenomenon of someone who fetishizes a lifestyle artifact (or a pastiche of lifestyle artifacts) such that they make their persona revolve around it/them. Example: Oh, you mean my cane!
But it's true that just having a product or habit isn't enough to make you one of Those People; it's the incessant talking about the thing that make you one of Those People. And what the heck --- Those People look pretty darned happy, so who am I to judge?