Soles

I have an older pair of shoes, Sketchers is the brand, that I bought in 2000, no later than 2001. These things have been workhorses. Been wearing them to work pretty regularly since. Actually, I had two of the same pair (don’t ask why), and so I switched between them over the years. They both got a good run for my money.<br />n<br />nOne pair just got too worn, so about a year ago, I let them go. This remaining pair I’ve continued to wear until the soles started to wear through, with a hole on the heel and a crack across the wide part of the foot. These won’t do in wet weather that’s coming up.<br />n<br />nThere is a little shoe repair shop in the plaza near the house. I decided to take them there and see what shoe repair is all about. Dropped them off on a Monday and the proprietor said they’d be ready the following Saturday. (Does it really take that long? They guy was sitting with his buddy sharing a smoke when I came in, fer cryin out loud.)<br />n<br />nI came back a week later to pick them up, having no idea what to expect in terms of cost. When he rang it up, I wonder now if he heard the thud when my mandible crashed to the ground. How much was I expecting? Maybe twenty bucks. How much was it? Over three times that!<br />n<br />nI didn’t say anything about it, didn’t make any snide remarks. After all, he is a small business owner who has been at this location for lots of years, who will be displaced once the owners of the property finally decide to sell out. But these Chinese made shoes (aren’t they all?), this really is an argument to just trash the old and get a full new pair. Economics. Argh.