Greasy Leather
As a teenage punk rocker, I wore combat boots for miles upon miles. I. Goldberg’s Army & Navy had bins full of them, presumably surplus from The Vietnam War. Wherever they got them, the combat boots were much cheaper than Doc Martens or Timberlands. Plus, Doc Martens would have meant taking classes in shoelace color theory, while Timberlands required I cross over to heavy metal music. No, thank you.
More recently, as an old man with plantar fasciitis, I was watching something or other in which they discussed how, somewhat counterintuitively, boots are highly recommended for people who are on their feet all day. So, I decided I needed a pair of boots, if only for nostalgia’s sake.
Nowadays, the old Nam boots are hard to come by and not so cheap. It would be obnoxious to wear Timberlands with my sort of desk job, plus I don’t especially like them. Doc Martens long ago ruined their street cred by outsourcing construction overseas and cutting all the corners. They were out. I wound up buying a pair of Solovairs, which is the standard compromise. They’re made by the same factory that assembled the original Docs when they were all made in England.
I had immediate regrets. The boots were too big, my feet flopped around inside them, my heels rubbed nearly to blistering, and the soles felt like walking on wood planks — and I’ve been walking the concrete streets in barefoot shoes for years! The good news is, after wandering around in them for around 20 miles, maybe more, while wearing proper boot socks, I now love them. I’m not sure if they’ll replace sneakers on my very long walks, but we’ll see how things go after they break in fully.