Welcome To the Blog!

As the sidebar explains in very vague terms, this is a blog for those out there that have an interest in trashed and abused women's shoes... an interest similar to mine, which happens to be one that I can't explain after all these years.  The appeal of a woman in high heels isn't all that perplexing.  After all, what guy doesn't appreciate the way a pair of heels changes the way a woman moves across a room?  However, the appeal of worn out shoes doesn't seem to make any sense, at least on the surface.  Smelly and stretched out and ripped and torn and sometimes broken, they compare to a pair of new shoes the same way an old beater compares to a car fresh off the showroom floor... and most guys wouldn't hesitate in taking the one with the new car smell.  Yet here I am and here you are, confused why you're drawn to the woman with the tattered sneakers, sandals with broken straps and pumps with a loose heel.

Over the years, I've struggled to find many ways in which to entertain this strange interest.  Before the days of being able to purchase items through the internet, I frequented local thrift shops, where were often a haven for used women's shoes.  However, I was always worried what the person behind the counter was thinking when a guy reached into his wallet to purchase a few pairs of women's shoes, and the shoes available weren't terribly worn since no thrift store was going to put the "best" stuff on the racks for sale.  Awful as it may sound in retrospect, frequenting donation bins in parking lots made more sense.  On the off chance the bin was full and bags of clothing were left on the ground in front of them, I'd wait until no cars were coming and quickly look through everything, hoping to score a pair of shoes that no thrift store employee in his or her right mind would consider allowing to be sold to someone.  Sometimes it worked, and I'd drive home with a gem or two.  More often, I'd go home empty-handed.

Thanks to eBay, things have changed for the better.  On any given day, you can go online and find upwards of 600 pairs of shoes being sold on the internet auction site under the description of "well worn shoes".  Not all are well worn, of course, as crafty salespeople will try to pass off lightly-used specimens to those desperate for a pair of shoes that have seen better days.  Yet if you do a little work, you'll be able to bid on dozens upon dozens of trashed and abused shoes in just a few minutes.  Just make sure you get the mail before your significant other, or make sure they're slipped in a plain brown box so there isn't a heel poking through a hole in the padded envelope, exposing to all what you purchased.  Trust me when I say that explaining your way out of that one isn't fun, or easy.

This leaves me with the predicament of what to do with my ever-growing collection of trashed and abused women's shoes.  Unlike others, I'm not one to get down with a pair and make a mess of them (although if that's your thing, more power to you).  I figure myself to be more a connoisseur, taking the shoes out of their box and admiring the way they've been worn down from beautiful, brand new shoes to ones that, if they could talk, would probably be begging for a retirement trip to the trash can.  I mean, have you seem what some women do to their shoes in the name of getting one more walk out of them?  I love to imagine what they've been through... how they earned their battle scars... how hard they would beg for mercy if given the chance.  After all, the duty of a shoe isn't a glamorous one... little things comprised of relatively weak materials tasked with supporting the tremendous weight of something much larger and made to walk through whatever you find while keeping it all together.  And now that I've discovered that I can buy women's shoes in sizes that fit my size 14 feet, I look forward to finally discovering what it's like to feel them on my feet and discover what it's like to walk in them.

This blog will be a window into the room containing my adventures with trashed and abused woman's shoes.  I'll share photos of shoes in my collection... tell you my thoughts, and hope you'll tell me yours by commenting.  I'm sure things will get quite interesting when the community grows large enough for some legitimate conversations.  I'll also fill you in on what I do when the larger pairs start showing up at my door.  I can't wait to feel what it's like to have a pair of slingbacks on my feet- correctly sized, so as not to make me force my feet into shoes that are way too small- and beat the crap out of them.  Should be fun... as will the adventure, so let's go!