I’m in need of a new pair of casual shoes so I went onto Zappos to browse. I’ve used this service before and it is pretty good. I rarely go to stores now, preferring to shop on-line. You have to think it through with things like shoes because you can’t try them on before buying them. Zappos has a great return system so it is not awful if you screw up and buy the wrong thing.
Anyway, I see this on the site today:
Out of curiosity, I click on the link and this is the result. Some of the choices look like work boots, but not really. Most look like the sort of boots urban hipsters buy, despite never leaving the sidewalk. The rest look like something you wear to the bathhouse. I’m old and wildly out of touch with popular culture, but my goodness.
Maybe I’m reading to much into it, but it strikes me that post-scarcity America is turning the necessities of the past into ironic fashion statements. The perpetual grad student will kit himself out in faux work boots and a Carhartt jacket, maybe some carpenter pants. He will never have held the working end of a hammer or screwdriver, but he’ll have the gear of the guy who used to use them to make a living.
In the 1970’s, the young hipsters went to the army surplus store and bought field jackets and pea coats. None of them would have lasted an hour in the service, but they liked the clothes. The upper middle-class kids were being ironic, wearing the clothes of the military, often decorated with their “personal statements” while sporting long hair and beards. Maybe the generation coming along now is ironically mocking the idea of work by wearing the uniform of the working man.
Yeah since when did dress shoes become work boots
I’m two years into a pair of boots I bought used and had re-soled by the manufacturer. Red Wing boots. I wear them ten hours each day except Sundays.
For the first time in human history, we have gone two generations away from the soil. It is showing in a big way. Young men in the United States are ignored economically and socially. The inactivity rate for men in their prime years is at record (and very disturbing) levels and the ruling class is going to do nothing about it. There is a yearning within young men to be connected with the outdoors. They grew up in the suburbs and now live in the reclaimed ghetto inner city. They dream of firing at a wild pig, dragging in a… Read more »
It’s even worse if you are a woman and need a pair of work-boots.
Finally found an Amish-owned shoestore that sells steel toed Columbias and Wolverines. Which is ironic because the Amish women are barefoot when they bale hay and rake the fields.
Here’s a hint.
If the “work boots” don’t cost north of $100, they’re glued together in China, won’t last too long.
I’ve settled on Chippewa myself,(one viberam Lug sole pair for dirt, one oil resistant non skid pair for concrete floors) but one MUST ensure it’s the Chippewa USA line. Even Timberland uses Chinese imports “glued” together, with crappier leather uppers.
When you see “Texas Steer” steel toe (or shank), just turn the page.
Several brands are available only online http://www.workshoecity.com and are often delivered. Because I have seen many workplace where employers use to buy even footwear for their employees depending on nature of job.