My Collection: City Sneaks Canvas Sneakers

One of my ultimate quests is to find a terribly trashed and abused pair of Keds to add to my collection.  The thing is, pairs like that don't become available very often and when they do, the bidding spirals out of control faster than a drunk on an icy curve.  I had a few pairs in the past that I foolishly disposed of when I got rid of my previous collections, and I have a feeling I'll live to regret those decisions for a very long time.  However, this pair of black City Sneaks wasn't a bad find, and I certainly didn't pay for them as if they were actual Keds.

Keds were very popular in the late 80's and early 90's, although I'm sure they were popular way before I began paying attention when I was in junior high.  The fad seemed to lead to an endless number of companies selling Keds-style sneakers.  Some were obviously cheap knock-offs while others were very close to the real things.  An ex girlfriend of mine had a pair made by Hanes and asides from the iconic blue Keds rectangle having been replaced by a pink Hanes one, I'd have never known the difference.  These City Sneaks aren't Keds doppelgangers but they're close enough for me, especially in their condition.

Surprisingly, there isn't much to see inside, although the lack of visual candy is helped by an overabundance of canvas sneaker odor.  Some of you will surely know what I'm talking about, and those that don't will just have to find out for themselves because it can't be put into words.  The lining that covers the rigid plastic counters is usually ripped, torn and worn away on sneakers exhibiting this much trashing and abuse but is perfectly intact on both of these shoes.  At least the insole is faded and stained, almost to the point where it's difficult to read the City Sneaks name in small, lowercase font.

Fortunately, a little treasure-hunting reveals a hidden gem.  By lifting up the loose insole of the right sneaker, a hole on the outsole is revealed (yes, I could have shown you photographs of the bottoms of the City Sneaks instead, but how would that have been any fun?)  As is almost always the case, the right shoe is a lot more worn than the left, which has outsoles worn dangerously thin but without any holes.

The canvas uppers display every kind of wear you could ever hope to find.  The black material is faded and stained and, on the right sneaker, is ripped where the foot flexes.  Right now the lining is hanging on just enough to keep this from being a full-fledged hole, but I'm sure another few weeks of hard use would cause it to give way.

The eyelets for the laces on the left shoe are just beginning to separate from the canvas uppers...

...but they'll have to speed things up if they want to catch the ones on the right shoe because a few are completely gone.  In fact, they appear to have been gone a while since they're nowhere to be found.  The laces definitely aren't original so the loose eyelets likely got tossed along with the original laces, and new ones were put on using the now-naked holes.

The bottoms of the shoes show City Sneaks' most obvious departure from Keds convention.  Instead of a gum rubber outsole, these sneakers have ones with a few shallow grooves and appear to have been covered in a fuzzy material that's barely visible only near the centers where the least amount of the wearer's weight was pounding them into the ground.

The hole on the heel area of the right shoe is the result of them being worn so much that the once-robust outsoles were worn paper-thin.  These sneakers weren't far away from being worn to the point where they would have been completely useless.  In fact, I'm not sure how the wearer got by with using them in this condition.  A hole this large would surely make it impossible to wear these in any kind of wet weather so either they were planned to be used only on dry days or it didn't matter if the wearer's feet got an accidental bath.

Even the fronts of the outsoles are starting to grow small holes, as this area has been worn paper-thin as well.  Women seem to be reckless with these kinds of canvas shoes, which is a blessing and a curse.  Trashed and abused examples are wonderful to have, but women don't often give up sneakers like these and when they do, they're usually under the impression they're so far gone that the only place for them is the trash.  If they only knew what guys like me would pay to get them.  Ladies, are you listening?

My Collection: Classiques Pumps

I'll kick off the work week with a beautiful example of office pumps.  If you're like me and looking to add trashed and abused shoes to your collection, you often can't go wrong with office pumps.  You'll have to make some sacrifices- they're usually fairly plain and the heels aren't insanely high, but they're usually a hell of a lot more worn out than fancy pumps that were slipped on for the occasional date, fancy dinner or formal event.  That's because office pumps are sometimes worn on a daily basis over a period of years, racking up miles over the course of countless long days.  Some pumps are visited by the feet.  Office pumps are often lived in, such as these.

This is a pair of 7M Classiques.  Despite the French-sounding name, the logo tag on the insole proudly states these are a product of Italy.  As is the case with other pumps in my collection, the height of the heel isn't really low or high, but for the sake of simplifying things I'll list these as high heels.  Some of these photos were taken with the flash on my camera turned on and that gives them a white-ish appearance but they're actually bone.  I'm sure that made them go well with pretty much everything in the wearer's closet.

The leather uppers (yes, this time I know it's real leather because everything is leather, even the outsoles) are very wrinkled and misshapen, particularly around the areas where the shoes flex.  I'm willing to bet a lot of those wear-related defects disappear when there are two feet inside of them, and I'm thinking these will be one of those pairs I make sure get on my friend's feet for a photo session in the not-too-distant future.

A closer inspection of the leather upper reveals a mess of little cracks, which is usually a sign of aging.  I have no idea how old these shoes are but I wouldn't be shocked if they've been around fifteen or twenty years.  They don't look like anything that's been sold since at least the start of the new millennium, although a reader of this blog much more in tune with fashion trends would be better equipped to prove me right or wrong.

The pumps stink... which, of course, is a wonderful thing.  They're a few feet from me as I type this and their delicious aroma is making their presence known.  In fact, they smell a lot like the shoes I used to buy from the thrift store, so I'm wondering if the seller duped me into thinking these were her pumps, or if that smell is common to older shoes.  I guess it doesn't matter because with this kind of trashing and abuse, I'm happy to have them in my collection.  Here you can see the color having been rubbed off the lining in some spots as well as a great amount of wear having been inflicted on the insole, which is beginning to work its way loose.

It's fun to think about what a pair of shoes goes through over the course of time, starting out life being stored in a box so as not to risk them getting damaged to ending up as a disposable item.  At what point does the wearer go from avoiding puddles to walking right through them?  Gently removing them from her feet at the end of the day to kicking them off into a corner upon walking in the door?

The wearer of these pumps kept them on from the moment she left in the morning until the time she got home.  The back of the right shoe is seriously scuffed, meaning it came in contact with the floor mat in the car as she drove to and from the office.  This area on the back of the left shoe is perfectly intact.

I love the way leather outsoles wear over time.  The material seems to fray a bit, making it a little soft and fuzzy.  Leather outsoles also seem to stain very easily, leading them to appear a lot more worn than they actually are.  These are just starting to feel a little thin in the areas under the balls of the feet, but are still in great shape.

The top pieces are worn very evenly, indicating the wearer of these shoes knew how to walk in them.

Only upon looking at them from the sides is it obvious how long these shoes had been in someone's service, as the top pieces likely started out about twice as thick as they are now.  Regardless, these pumps were worn hard as one of someone's "go to"pairs but held up well in the face of everything thrown at them.  I'll be on the lookout for more just like these.

My Collection: Ballet Flats of an Unknown Brand

Despite my silent grumbling about there being way too many pairs of ballet flats for sale on eBay, I've purchased quite a few.  The majority aren't very worn at all but every once in a while I come across a pair that's trashed and abused enough for my liking.  This pair walks the fine line between the two and something compelled me to bid.  Maybe it was the leopard print?

As far as ballet flats go, these are holding their shape quite well.  Most have quarters that are collapsing but these are completely intact, at least from a distance.  One major sign of wear is the fact that the insoles are missing, with the layer of cushioning that once resided below them pulling double duty.  Since the white foam is fairly dirty, it's obvious these shoes were worn without the insoles for a while, instead of having had them removed for the sake of making them look more worn.

 

 

There's nothing much to see on the outsoles.  They're fairly worn but nothing that renders the shoes unwearable.  Considering how the wear on the outsoles is in line with the wear exhibited elsewhere on the flats, it's likely these spent some time outdoors.

With the help of my camera's flash, it's easy to see toe prints inside the shoes.  I'm going to assume these were worn barefoot and in hot weather, which makes sense because I'm pretty sure I bought these from a seller in Florida.

The lining in the quarter of the right show is separating at the topline.  I'm not sure of why this isn't also happening on the left shoe, although it ties in nicely with my theory that right shoes generally take more abuse than their left counterparts.  Even if the wearer is left handed and that somehow indicates what foot takes on more of the body's weight, the right foot is the one that has to operate the accelerator and brake pedals, meaning the right shoe gets forced to do a lot more bending and flexing and moving around.

 



The most significant trashing and abuse on these flats can be seen on the backs of the uppers.  The material appears to be joined by another wide strip of the same stuff, and for some reason everything is coming apart.  I can't think of a reason why this is happening.  Even if the wearer crushed down the quarters to use the shoes as mules (which I'm almost sure she didn't, judging by the wear that's visible), it wouldn't cause this to happen.  Ideas?

Lou's Girlfriend's Shoes: An Introduction

When I started this blog, I had no idea what kind of interactions I would have with you, the valued readers.  As it turns out, the majority of you are very, very quiet.  No comments?  At all?  Come on, some of you must have something to say, right?  Right?  Oh well, maybe at some point down the road.

One of the earliest emails I remember having received was from a gentleman named Lou, residing on the other side of the pond in Europe.  He expressed a desire to send me two old pairs of his girlfriend's shoes to trash and abuse by way of "natural" methods, as opposed to taking the easy way out and simply throwing them in a mud puddle or setting fire to them.  I'd get to document the destruction and post it to the blog for all you lucky readers to enjoy under the stipulation that I finish taking the shoes to within inches of their lives by June so they can be sent back to him.  At first, I didn't know what to make of the request.  Seeing as how his girlfriend's size 39 shoes (that's a size 8.5 here in the States) would be a really tough squeeze onto my big feet, wasn't sure what I could do to them aside from using them as way-too-small slippers.  After I reminded myself that a challenge is just an opportunity in disguise, I imagined many ways by which I could meet Lou's request.  Over the next three months, I'll provide regular updates and while I'm not about to share all of my ideas right now, I do have a friend who I know will be more than happy to slip onto her size 8 feet and take them hiking over some precarious terrain when the weather here gets a little more tolerable.  I'm already looking forward to sharing those photos with you.

As for the shoes, let's take a look.

I'm not sure of the brand of these ballet flats- there's nothing listed anywhere, nor does it look like there was anything affixed to the shoes that ever indicated the brand.  Lou says they're about four years old, and that seems to be right judging by their appearance and the way they're adding a nice aroma to my office as I type this.  The uppers are either a cheap-feeling real leather or a somewhat-convincing faux leather, and straps across the toe boxes provide a mounting point for two cute off-center bows.

As is typical of ballet flats, there are no counters to stiffen the quarters so they're a bit misshapen, especially on the right shoe.  There are times this is caused by the wearer deciding to push the quarters down with her heels instead of allowing them to do their jobs and wrap around them (that's what I'm going to have to do when I start wearing these flats).  Since doing that usually results in some scuffing and staining of the uppers and there are no visible signs of that on these, I'm guessing the quarters are misshapen because of the way they were tightly packed into a box for shipping across two continents.

The insoles and lining are of a cloth-like material with flower pattern that my grandmother probably would have liked as wallpaper.  Here you can see the cloth starting to separate from the insoles, likely from moisture generated by sweaty feet.  Seeing as how the cloth has a way of bunching up, I can imagine these flats were quite uncomfortable to wear without socks.  Maybe that's why Lou's girlfriend might not be missing them all that much?

The situation is a little better near the seats where some staining of the flowery cloth can best be appreciated.  Note the lack of stiffening counters in the quarters- I'm assuming this is what separates ballet flats from regular flats that are a lot more rigid?  Are ballet flats more comfortable than regular flats?  They certainly seem more popular these days.

It appears that Lou's girlfriend probably spent a lot of time wearing these flats indoors as the outsoles are worn smooth in some spots but are generally without any extreme signs of trashing and abuse.  The rubber isn't worn very thin, so it's possible these shoes could have been worn for another few years.  I'm looking forward to making it so they can never be worn again, at least in public by any woman that's at all conscious of her appearance!

This is something I've seen on countless pairs of ballet flats- the quarter seems to sag over time, with the bottom eventually ending up drooping down over the rubber of the heel section of the outsole.  While the wear is very light on this particular pair of shoes, I've seen other pairs where the wear is so severe, the material that comprises the upper gets worn through to the lining because of the way it scrapes along the ground.  You'll be seeing this in some ballet flats I'll be sharing with you in the not-too-distant future.

The second pair of shoes from Lou and his girlfriend's closet is a pair of Superga sneakers.  I've never heard of the brand so I'm guessing they're specific to Europe.  They look to be a cross between a pair of old canvas Keds and a more modern pair of Converse All-Stars.  Lou says this pair is about two years old.

The pink canvas uppers display significant signs of wear without having been compromised in a way that prevents them from being usable.  The canvas is starting to fray along the topline of both shoes, although much more obviously on the right one.  As with the ballet flats, I look forward to making sure these sneakers reach the end of their life within three months.

Initially I thought the uppers were starting to separate from the rubber material that joins them to the outsoles, but a closer examination revealed that's not the case.  Too bad.

What's too bad- for the sneakers, of course- is the extreme trashing and abuse seen in the quarters.  The lining is completely ripped and worn away, exposing the shape-forming counters that ensure the shoes remain rigid enough to stay on the wearer's feet.

Things are so bad on the right sneaker that the counter is literally cracking apart.  Usually this is a result of what I described earlier where the wearer smashes down the quarters with her heels so that the shoes becomes makeshift mules.  However, there is no staining of the canvas of the upper that would indicate it spent any amount of time under the heel of the foot, so it's possible the cracking is the result of Lou's girlfriend's feet being slid in and out of the sneakers hundreds of times.

Superga appears to have been inspired by Keds as the outsoles have a similar look and feel, although the textured pattern is slightly different.  Wear is visible in the expected areas under the balls of the feet and the heels.

Many thanks to Lou for being a loyal reader of the blog and for being the first to step up and contribute.  I'm looking forward to the chance to honor his request and share the results with you, and perhaps another reader or two will enjoy this so much that they'll want to contribute as well?  No reasonable requests will be denied!

These shoes will be sorry they made the trip to the U.S. of A.  Stay tuned...

My Collection: Nine West High-Heeled Pumps

In the world of shoes, I'm only vaguely familiar with what's universally respected.  I'm sure every woman wants a pair of Christian Louboutins to join her Manolo Blahniks in the closet, and it seems there's an appreciation for most anything with the Steve Madden name.  Nine West?  I'm not so sure, but on a personal level, I have a soft spot in my heart for them.  Maybe it goes back to when I was younger and spent a lot of time in my mother's closet?  One of my favorite pairs of her pumps was made by Nine West and I always found myself going back to them.  When I was out of high school and building my first collection of trashed and abused shoes by way of the local Salvation Army thrift store, I picked up a few pairs of Nine West pumps.  They were all of the same design with the sides of the heels featuring a ever-so-slight concave scallop that gave the back of them two character lines in the form of nicely-defined creases.  The look was nothing overly dramatic, just very stylish and elegant.  This was about fifteen years ago and I imagine the shoes were about ten years old at the time, but I believe that if they were sold today, the design would look very modern and work well with just about anything.

I suppose my love of Nine West shoes brought me to these.  There's nothing very trashed or abused about them- they're worn and used but could easily be put into service by a woman looking for a pair of pumps for a formal event, night of partying or even day at the office.  The topline is low, exposing a good portion of the foot, while the pointed toe box is stylish but isn't very severe. 

The heels are probably what would be described as of a medium height, although for the sake of categorization on this blog I'll refer to them as high heels.  They taper to become very thin at the bottom, which is a look that always appeals to me.  The right shoe is leaning to the side just a bit- partially because of the somewhat uneven tile surface of my dining room table that makes for an easy place to photograph shoes with heels, and partially because the top piece is completely gone, as you'll see in a minute.

The black leather uppers are practically perfect.  There are a few scratches here and there but overall it's soft and pliable, with nice creases from lots of wear.  Nine West always seemed to use good leather for their shoes.  Then again, I'm no expert and am probably making uneducated assumptions based on my limited experiences with their products, which I admittedly don't wear (but, oh, how I dream I could).

 

I wish I could have seen these pumps in action.  They're a size 8M, which makes them almost perfect candidates to end up on the feet of a friend of mine who will be helping me with contributions to this blog in the future.  I have to decide how much I love these shoes- do I want them to survive, or do I want them to suffer?  I'm trying to come up with ways to bribe her into walking through the woods or even a gravel parking lot in these... you know, just in case I decide to pull the trigger on extreme abuse.

 

Inside, there's not much to see.  The silver linings are in great shape and still have a decent amount of cushioning beneath them.  I'm willing to bet it was a pleasure for the wearer to slide her feet into these over and over again.  I know I'd be doing that, keeping myself entertained for hours upon hours if they fit my feet.

 

The only visible signs of wear are in the quarters where the cloth-like material is starting to separate where it is joined together behind the heels of the feet.  Still, it's minimal, and has no effect on the integrity of the pumps.  To quote a popular line from eBay descriptions of trashed and abused shoes, these really do have a lot of life left in them.

 

The outsoles have shallow ridges stamped into the rubber to provide a modicum of grip on slippery surfaces and are intact for the most part, with wear being limited to the areas subjected to the weight of the wearer.  Even then, the ridges have been worn smooth but the outsoles have not lost any of their thickness.

 

  

The tips of the pointed toes are looking a little rough, as to be expected of pumps with pointed toe boxes.  It's probably quite challenging to keep them from coming in contact with everything and makes sense that they'd be among the parts of the shoes exhibiting the most wear.

However, nothing compared to the top pieces, which are worn to the nail on the left shoe and completely gone on the right, exposing the nail and the plastic structure of the heel itself.  I always wonder if the wearer knows when a top piece is missing?  I remember my wife having a pair of sandals that had a huge crack spanning the width of the outsole, yet she never knew it because she never looked at the bottoms of her shoes.  Is it possible these shoes were worn for weeks or months with the top piece missing, and only when the wearer noticed were they finally retired?  How wonderful it would be to get inside a woman's head!  I've had some interesting conversations in the past but they've just scratched the surface of my curiosity.

My Collection: More Flip Flops of an Unknown Brand

Once again, it's been a while.  I really have to work on some form of consistency with this blog.  However, in my defense, it's been a busy week and I haven't had many alone moments at the house in which to photograph shoes in my collection and when I do, it's late at night and I can't count on the help of natural light to help in my photography sessions.  I see no point in posting lackluster photos that don't do the shoes any justice, just for the sake of making sure there is something new to post.  Quantity is the goal but quality is a must.

I'm not sure if I'm really sick enough to have taken the day off from work, but I did, and now I can use some of my time alone to catch up on a few things.  First is the breaking in of my Pleaser slingbacks.  Wow.  Two inches of heel height makes one hell of a difference!  It took me no time at all to get used to 3" heels but the 5" heels of these shoes make my feet wobble, not to mention hurt quite a bit as the weight of my body is forced into the balls of my feet, which in turn squeezes my toes into the pointy toe box.  It probably doesn't help that the heels are very narrow to the point where they could probably be defined as stilettos.  On the plus side, my calves are being stretched so much that I shouldn't wake up in the middle of the night with cramps for at least a few days, and being 6'3" tall in 5" heels gives me a feeling of power.

I still don't know what I'm going to do with these shoes.  Maybe I'll feel more comfortable using them for destructive purposes if I can get accustomed to having to balance myself on the tall, thin heels but right now I feel like one wrong move will send a heel snapping off the shoe, which will in turn leave me needing another pair.  This is by no means a cheap hobby!  But anyway, being home today allowed me to not have to rush to leave work and get to the mailbox before my wife gets home because I knew today was the day I'd be adding another pair of flip flops to my collection.

I have no idea of the brand name, as only the faint remnants of letters can be seen in the heel area.  The seller advertised them as a size 9 and I believe it, because they're just barely big enough to squeeze onto my feet for short periods of time (time on me feet is how I got the straps to maintain a shape long enough for me to take some photos.)  The seller claims to have another pair just like these and just about as worn so I'm hoping to make a deal for those.  Perhaps then I could have one pair to admire with my eyes and another pair to suffer under my feet.

As I've said in the past, flip flops can be boring, but can also be extremely enjoyable.  This pair is clearly an example of the latter.  From afar, they look as though they need a new coat of paint.  There's way too much wear here for a black Sharpie to repair!

The wear to the heel areas reveals the honeycomb-like structure sandwiched between the insoles and outsoles.  The insoles feel as though they're real leather but as I've stated in other posts, can never be quite sure.  Regardless, a good portion of the leather/faux leather has been worn off, revealing a cloth-like material below.  The white marks are the remains of the brand name that was once printed on the flip flops.  Any shoes CSIs out there willing to help with the identification of these poor things?

The front areas of the shoes are even worse.  Note the long thongs that slide between the big toe and the other four.  It's almost as if the thongs were designed to extend forward from where they attach to the insoles before rising up.  Or is it possible they stretched about three quarters of an inch?  Either way, the extra long thong is part of the reason why I can massage my feet into these flip flops, so I'm not complaining.

In some areas, the lining is so worn that the cloth-like material is also worn away, revealing the rubber of the outsole.  These flip flops did not have an easy life.  In addition to having been used a lot, it seems as if the wearer wasn't very careful with them, although that could be an assumption I want to make as I fantasize about what these went through.

The front of the right one is a total mess- frayed, with all the layers of material beginning to separate from one another.  Peeling it back provides a revealing look at the sandwich of rubber, cloth and even paper that comprises the construction of these flip flops.

The straps being stretched out beyond the shape of the outsoles and under the weight of the body left permanent indentations in the leather/faux leather.  A nice touch that I discovered only after spending some quality time with the shoes.  It pays to have quiet moments where they can be enjoyed with more than a passing glance.

The straps are decorated with countless colored pieces of plastic that remind me of sequins, except rectangular instead of round.  Many are still intact but many are also missing, having left behind traces of white thread that likely held them in place.  They seem to be firmly attached so it must have taken collisions with some pretty hard objects to work them loose.

Flipping the shoes over doesn't show a ton of wear on the bottoms of the outsoles.  They're worn smooth in some spots and the honeycomb-like rubber in the heels can once again, but other than that these flip flops took most of their beating on the other side.  Here's hoping that I can soon be adding their sisters to my collection.