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  An ex girlfriend of mine had a pair made by Hanes and asides from the iconic blue Keds rectangle having been replaced by a pink Hanes one, I'd have never known the difference.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?

Looking Down

Most women are used to a guy's eyes gravitating to points north on their body.  What would women think if they knew that my eyes are programmed to look down (in addition to north because, after all, I'm a normal guy once you get past this peculiar interest of mine)?

I can't help myself, as much as I've tried in the past to keep my interest in a woman's shoes from taking control.  Of course I make it a point to be as discreet as possible, but I'm not sure if I'm always successful.  I can only hope.  At least looking down has provided me with lots of visuals, lots of insight and lots of stories throughout the years.

It was when I worked part-time at a local grocery store that I really began paying attention to what women wore on their feet.  Over time I discovered there were some customers that I really enjoyed seeing walk up and down the aisles.  Three stand out in my mind- all middle-aged, and all with an affinity for Keds and Keds-style sneakers.  One (who, for some reason, stands out in my mind as having always been pregnant despite the fact that I only ever saw her with one of two kids) had feet that would cause the uppers to bulge severely on the sides of her feet- something that those kinds of sneakers didn't seem designed to prevent all that well.  Another had sneakers that always had holes on the sides, and regardless of the pair she was wearing they were always in the exact same spots.  If I was working on the sales floor, I'd always make it a point to start blocking a lower shelf in their vicinity so I could be closer to their feet as they walked by (yes, I never forgot my retail terminology, despite now having been out of the business for close to a decade.)

However, there was one woman that still stands out in my mind for a number of reasons.  First, she was the mother of a good friend of mine throughout my school years, all the way up to a few years following high school graduation.  Second, she was divorced but clearly had money, which made it amusing that she wore the most trashed, abused and plain disgusting Keds you can ever imagine being used as serious articles of clothing.  They weren't falling apart like those featured in one of my favorite YouTube videos (see below) but they were stretched out, scratched and faded beyond belief.  What possessed a mature woman with money to leave her house in such lousy sneakers when she likely had a closet full of more presentable options?  Third, she always seemed to bestow upon me an unreasonable amount of attention, often stopping me for half hour-long conversations that would have left my boss fuming had I not been such a good employee.  I can recall a talk about not knowing how to cook leading to her begging me to come over to be taught how to prepare a meal, another about going for a ride in her new car and even one where she boasted about the virtues of younger men.  Had she not been the mother of my friend, I probably wouldn't have ignored her flirtatious overtures.

Speaking of trashed and abused Keds, check out this YouTube video.  It starts out with some nice footage of the wearer playing with her pumps in the snow but then heats up when she tosses a rotten old pair of the things to the ground and tramples the living hell out of them, even going as far as to shove the pumps she's wearing into the Keds.  The fact that the uppers are ripped and torn to the point of barely being able to hold themselves together makes the sneakers appear to shudder in either pain, fear or both.  There's no telling what I'd pay for a pair of Keds like that if they came my way.

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...