The not so secret history of my footwear

You can blame Beth Kempton: I know I am hahaha

I suspect Beth Kempton might just have unleashed a monster. This week, she encourages us to think about boots, or perhaps shoes, and the impact they have had on our lives. It is fair to say that boots and shoes have been important in one way or another for almost as long as I remember.

I remember being forced to wear sensible shoes to school to correct my flat feet. Obviously I hated them and would change into a pair of black Converse Hi Tops at the bus stop on my way to school. Hide the sensible pair underneath the bin, because, who would want to steal them? And then change back just before getting home. That was quite possibly 1974 and the start of obsession number 1.

My Converse saw me through much of my punk, pogoing years until I discovered a shop in town selling vintage stilettos and obsession number 2 was born. I even learnt to pogo in them, only doing damage to others on the ‘dance’ floor, never myself.

Just towards the end of this phase, I remember reading my boyfriends mums Kays catalogue, and seeing a pair of black leather thigh length high heeled boots that I couldn’t live without. This would be around 1981. I wore those boots at every single opportunity and still have them today. Obsession number 3.

Through the years, I have got into trouble for the wrong footwear. Got into debt for exactly the right footwear. Acquired quite a reputation for never wearing anything anybody else might wear, apart, of course, from my trusty black converse. I would decide what I was going to wear each day depending on the footwear required. Cold? Boots. Was it raining? Not suede. Was it a straight from the car, via the undercover car park to the office day? The world was my oyster. A suit day? Definitely the highest heels. So many things to think about before I even chose my actual suit or other outfit.

In 2006 I met my now husband, who had almost as many shoes as I did back then and he would regularly come home from a shopping trip having bought me a pair he loved, and that he knew I would too. They were always lovely and always fitted. In 2021, we got married: he in a pair of bright orange suede Docs and me in a pair of Ditsy Pink Hi Tops. My love affair with Converse was rekindled.

Then in 2022, the impact of osteoarthritis in both hips started to really kick in, and my high heels started to feel uncomfortable. Then just about the time I went on the waiting list for two hip replacements, it became impossible to wear heels at all for the additional stress they placed on my hip ball/socket placement.

For a while, I just resorted to my collection of Docs: after all, we were now living in rural Scotland, so Docs were much more sensible anyway. Until I reached a point at which my hip flexors were suffering too much with the extra weight in the Docs, and I had to fall back on my very first obsession.

Welcome back and thank god for Converse.

Today, as I wait for my op, Converse are the only things that help me walk (or shuffle) with confidence. Some, such as those with the lift platform, are still too heavy, and there are days when only Low Tops will do. Even in the winter, when my feet are freezing, they are sometimes all I can wear. For my mum’s funeral, I bought a new pair of classic white Low Tops: she would have understood.

So obviously, my husband is now channelling our combined obsession for my footwear into Converse, and just right now, we have an embargo on buying more. Just for a while. Just until I can go back into shops and see what there is. Have some actual input rather than online, or a list of ‘do not buy’s’. Really. It is a thing.

For now, let me leave you with a picture of most of my current collection. And I say ‘most’ because after taking the photo and tidying everything away again, I realised I left two very important pair out. One black pair, and one white pair of XXHi Knee High Chucks. They are totally to die for, but understandably not always comfortable right now either.

Thanks for the little trip around Memory Lane Beth: I think I might just nip upstairs and polish some of those shiny stilettos while I wait to be able to wear them again.

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Thanks to Beth Kempton for this excuse to talk about my footwear. Beth leaves us some food for thought and a prompt every Monday through her private Soul Stack community. Always interesting. Very often thought provoking. Thanks Beth :-)