Surprise, Surprise: My New Favorite Shoes Fasten With a Velcro®-Like Substance

My true love bought me a pair of L. L. Bean "Summer Sneakers" in the mary jane style.  I love them, love them, love them.  They weigh nothing at all.  They are neither too slopey nor too flat for my prosthesis.  They are cute!  They have awesome traction (except on mossy wet wood like my balcony)!  They come in an array of exciting colors, including this delightful pastel blue called "lake"!

Okay, enough with the exclamation points, I agree.

Seriously, these are good summer shoes.  The ventilated fabric is a true, light mesh, and the trim is plastic, not leather.  The insoles are removable.  Drainage holes are punched in the bottom so that you can submerge them in water and not have squelchy feet all day, at least in theory; I haven't gotten in a boat or the river yet this year, so that part has yet to be tested.  At every step, though, because of all that ventilation top and bottom, a breeze comes through and fans my hot little tootsie.  This makes my hot little tootsie extremely happy.

They should fit a wide range of foot shapes and sizes, being wide and stretchy and fastened with a generous if mismatched strap of the aforementioned Velcro®-like substance.

As for that traction, check out the "nonmarking" soles:

Nice, huh?  I was surprised to skid around a little on my balcony this morning, but that wet mossiness is a known hazard.  I think the only shoes I own that don't skid on it are my Tevas.  Still, these are supposed to be boatworthy, and I expected them to do better.  Once I've tried them on an actual boat, I shall report back.

Of course, the real hazard of mary janes of any variety is that when some jerk crosses in front of you in a darkened movie theater and carelessly steps on you with his big dirty shoe, it leaves a mark on your foot.

Now I have to scrub gunk off my rubber metatarsus.  Bother.

Oh, well, at least I have cute new shoes.

Meanwhile, I am perplexed by just one thing.  Why are they called "sneakers"?  How did that designation go from something like this --

-- to something that looks like this?

Comments

[Penny]

Love the colors, and the drainage holes are a good idea too (not that we ever get rain here). I'm a fiend for Mary Janes, anyway. Favorite right now are Skechers "bikers"--similar to what you've got, sneaker-ish soles but nicer (velcro strapped) uppers. I'm breaking a few pairs in anticipation of a shoe-intensive vacation next month.

[patry]

I like the idea of "lake" as a color; and I LOVE the shoes. (You always make me want to buy things...)

[Sara]

Penny, you may not get much rain in SoCal, but I know there are boats. Also, there are tide pools from Malaga Cove to Portuguese Bend and rough rocks under the water in places like Laguna where thick soles with drainage holes might come in very handy. (I am always available to help rationalize a shoe purchase. Any shoe purchase. I understand why you might need some slightly like another pair you already have only different.)

Patry, mwa ha ha. But have I ever steered you wrong?

Of course, now you have me thinking about the color "lake." I make you shop; you make me think. Who has the better end of this bargain, hm?

I agree; it's a great name, though the name isn't why I chose it. I almost bought "cement." I was trying to buy something that would go with my coloring and my whole summer wardrobe as well.

Meanwhile, "lake" as a color has been around for awhile. It just has a different meaning for a painter. For a painter, "lake" is almost always red. There is crimson lake. There is vermilion lake. Madder lake. Geranium lake. Sometimes there is yellow lake. But I have never seen a blue or green lake in a paint box, not that I recall.

The red lakes come from "lac," a red pigment derived from insects, either by excretion or by the crushing of their shells. The word "lake" in a paint name can also refer to a process of combining organic pigments with metallic ones to create vivid shades, but that seems less poetic somehow.

It's much more poetic simply to say, "Her love had lake-colored eyes" or "She pranced about in slippers the color of a lake at dawn." Right? And in a poem, we might not mention the fact that the "slippers" were actually "sneakers" and had thick rubber soles with drainage holes molded into them. Likewise, we might not mention that if you took each color you can see on a lake at dawn and mashed it around with all the others on an artist's palette, you'd come up with a color very much like wet cement.

Or maybe we would. What do you think?

[sognatrice]

I saw these shoes in the LL Bean catalog and loved them--you've made them even cuter (minus the metatarsus mêlée)!

But now *I'm* wondering...cement shoes...hmmm...perhaps it's my Italian heritage, but I just don't like the sound of that.

[Sara]

Oh, my goodness! I hadn't even thought of that! That's so funny!

The marketeers must have been very tired that day. Or maybe they got in over their heads on the football pool. Really, "eggshell" -- though one might not like to walk on eggshells -- would have been fine.

Did you see the red, not called "lake" here but "colonial red"? It's very pretty in person. I'm not sure what's "colonial" about it, though. I always think of white as a more truly colonial color.

[Danielle]

I looooooooooooove LL Bean shoes. I got the "comfort mocs" while recovering from a broken ankle, and I vowed that I'd never wear any other shoes again! I haven't so far, and it's been almost 5 years!!! LOVE THEM.