The Strangest Experience So Far

Shoe shopping has been one of the most aggravating things about this boycott because so many of them are made in China. Now, if you couple that aggravation with the fun of shoe shopping with a man who truly believes that there is no earthly reason to own more than two pairs of shoes at any given time, you have a recipe for disaster!

Luke, despite his ranting against shoe ownership, needs a pair (or two or three) of new shoes. This is true because about a year ago he insisted on buying a pair of very snazzy men's dress shoes for his interview, which is a very sensible thing to do.

However, he has worn these same snazzy pair of shoes to work EVERY DAY since then and they are falling apart!

Since we live in the middle of nowhere (according to some people) we are often at a loss for what to do on the weekends. One Friday night I thought it would be fun to drag Luke to the mall...to go shoe shopping...for him...on a Friday night....

Yeah, it was a blast! But the point of this blog is not to prattle on about my relationship, it's to talk about not buying stuff made in China, so here I go....

The very first shoe store we went into was some chain thing, Shoe Dept. or Famous Footwear or Super Cheap Shoes R Us. Both of us were assuming that we would be unsuccessful in our efforts to find a pair of shoes not made in China, never mind to find a pair that Mr. Pickypant who scorns shoes would begrudgingly buy.

All was going according to our pessimistic plan when low and behold a bizarre twist of fate occurred!

Luke picked up a pair of shoes, I think they were Sketchers, and I picked up the same pair of shoes...and his were made in China and mine were made in Vietnam. The same pair of shoes!

Now, I've seen companies export all of one type of product, say purple rubber ducky boots, to China and export the neon green stilletos to Brazil, but I've never seen the size 12.5 sneakers being made in China and the 13.5 made in Vietnam.

What do you suppose is the rationale behind this? Is it significantly cheaper to make the slightly larger sized shoes in yet another country? Was there a misprint in the shoes? Did my eyes deceive me? Does it matter?

In this case, no, not really, because despite finding a few pairs of shoes not made in China, Luke has not yet found the holy grail of "super awesome incredibly redeeming and super styling yet comfortably functional shoes" he is pretending to look for.

Do I need to tell you what the rest of the shoe not shopping experience was like?

Post note-
We did manage to find New Balance sneakers at Kohls which proclaimed that they are made in America. They even come with a thought provoking blurb about what it means to be made in America. A refreshing find in these turbulent times, and yet not enough for my honey...