When I was a kid, Mom took me to Payless once a year to buy shoes. Specifically, to have me pick out a pair of sneakers and sandals. The idea was that I could then buy nicer shoes – church shoes – with my allowance money.
Unfortunately for her, she severely miscalculated just how little I cared about the niceness of my shoes or their appropriateness for church. So towards the end of every year she’d have to argue me down on a variety of issues I found extremely debateable, such as “Why can’t I just wear my sandals to the Christmas Eve service?” and “But if I jump from the car to the sidewalk, I might not get any snow in them!” and “BUT I DON’T WANT TO GO SHOPPING.”
In fact, up until last week, I’m pretty sure I didn’t own any shoes that weren’t either a) from Payless, or b) a gift. (Usually from my mother. With a vaguely threatening note attached.)
But after my last pair of flats gutted themselves tragically on a sewer grate (whyyy?), I realized that I should probably just accept that I need to actually go invest my money in A Pair of Forever Shoes, made out of real leather or something. A Pair of Forever Shoes would’ve survived that sewer grate, damnit.
And they cost two hundred dollars.
Oh god, I nearly passed out when I clicked “submit” on their website. I feel incredibly guilty spending more than $50 on any one thing (thanks a lot, mom!) (<– that may or may not be sarcastic! I have not decided!)
Anyway, they came, and they are truly awesome.
Things to Do In $200 Shoes:
1. Wear them to a day at the clinic – because they’re ridiculously comfortable and professional. Sensible!
2. Lie on your bed watching half a season of Arrested Development and eating nachos, and think to yourself, “I am watching Arrested Development and eating nachos while wearing $200 shoes.” and marvel at the direction your life has taken.
… Guess which one I’ve been using them for?
WORTH EVERY PENNY.
(Technically, if you want to follow in my very expensive footsteps, today you can get a 20% off coupon for liking their company on facebook. I feel like a shill telling you guys that, but like – what if one of you decided to buy a pair? And I didn’t tell you about the 20% off thing, so you spent an extra $40? That would definitely be worse.)
Action Potential 
I am completely with you on this one. I bought the cheapest shoes possible. Then I started clinic and the pain began – dress shoes were the pits! I bought three pairs of (at the time) EXPENSIVE shoes. I believe that they were approximately $75 a pair….that was about 25 years ago. Not only am I still wearing them now and they are NOT wornout. My husband has fixed my very favorites with “shoe goo” several times.,…
Spend the money. Have happy feet. Have shoes that last practically FOREVER. Save money in the long run.
Wow. When I was in med school I couldn’t afford anything that wasn’t on sale at Target.
Haha, well, I don’t mean to give the wrong impression. I spend like $400/month less on rent than my med school expects me to, because my apartment is quite literally a 12 x 12 foot room with no kitchen.
Hurray for leftover student loan money!
Grump, Even Danksos cost around $100. It’s totally worth a little coin so that you don’t end up gimping around the hospital. You spend so much time on your feet, you HAVE to take care of them. Did you see what happened to albinoblackbear’s feet with her shoes? Cellulitis is not something to seek out.
Are you still using these? I’m thinking about getting a pair but not sure if they’ll hold up for a full day in the hospital…
ABSOLUTELY! I actually now have 4 different pairs of tieks (which, you know, at those prices is saying a lot about my confidence in them). They’re perfect for running around the hospital – and so far they seem to last forever!
They should totally give you a cut of the sales, because I just entered my credit card info to buy them. Tieks are so much prettier than Danskos!! Why don’t more people in medicine know about this??
Also, thank you for saving my feet 🙂