if you are surprised that i am doing a post on some new shoes so soon after the last one on the very same subject (link, look you see) then i am too. whereas nothing overtly bad or untoward happened with the last pair, all the same it was so that i needed new ones. undoubtedly i shall reference such as we go.
as the title gives every (and all) indication of, indeed i am now the owner of a pair of air max shoes, or trainers (or "kicks" as one good friend called them) off of nike. my surprise here is twofold, if that does in fact mean there are two aspects to it. first off that they were available in my size was a new one, and the second thing would be that they were if not "affordable" then relatively within a kind of impromptu cost that i felt kind of comfortable paying.
to address the first element of surprise there, well, us of a larger disposition (or whatever you wish to call it) do struggle. my size 13 (!) feet generally means my choice of quality footwear is limited to one of two pairs a shop may have. by the way, that size (according to the box) translates as being 14 in the realm of America, and some arbitrary, stupid made up number in the frankly ludicrous way them over in that mainland Europe (EU and beyond) give shoe measurements. one suspects the limitation on choice i and others face is economics. with the vast majority of people in this world having feet what measure a 12 or below ("fewer") it is not cost effective to make too many larger. this is of course different to other garments, in particular shirts, where the "well known" brands don't make sizes beyond 2xl. quite frankly that's all prejudice; the companies do not want large people wearing their clothes.
yes it was quite by chance, and some strategic placing in the shop, that i saw these. having not ever seen a fancier pair of trainers in my size available before normally it would not occur to me to look at the more designer section of shoes in a shop. but, i did, i found them, and here we well and truly are.
so how are they? well, with so many pictures uploaded i would not wish to jettison all i had to say in one paragraph, as easier as that might be for you. overall i have found the shoes closer to acceptable than agreeable. they do just about all asked of them, so not bad, but also not the single greatest pair of shoes what i have ever come to own.
for some of you it is so that partially provenance and mostly price shall be of some interest. to commence with the least interesting part the provenance is, of course, Sports Direct. it may well be so that some have quarrels with the way that nice Mike Ashley does things, but to be fair his celebrated store is just about the only one where i can walk into an actual shop and find at least one pair of shoes what will fit me. virtually every other purveyor of shoes just tell me that for my size i shall have to order them online. i get that mine is an out of the ordinary size and space for storage is limited, but is it all that bad an idea to keep at least one serviceable pair in a non-standard size?
coin cost, as is surprisingly clear in the above VHS mode image, was £70. indeed i did wince a bit, and have a little cry. my understanding, though, was that these shoes normally cost well north of £100, as is somewhat clarified by that close enough to £115 price at the bottom right. ultimately, as i shall get to quite soon, i really needed new shoes, and so despite some hesitation elected to make the proprietor of this famous store just that little bit richer.
not at all sure why they are called air "max". is it that they do an air "standard"? or even a "minimum" variation of these? possibly do, but i did not think to look in the shop.
often i have been guilty of seeking to get certain things on when cheap despite it being an act of folly to do so. i am sure i am not alone. yes, it's lovely to get things cheap, but in some instances that saying of you get what you pay for is true. when it's a physical comfort thing, like shoes or even something like a mattress, buying silly cheap usually means an inferior product which shall do a job but not be at all beneficial to your wellbeing. no, i mean don't immediately buy the most expensive of everything, just that the default "the cheapest will do" is not always the wisest.
what, exactly, happened to the previous pair? should you have missed it above, here is the link to my celebration of that pair. frankly they were a disaster. not long after purchase and wearing them they, or at least the left one, commenced making a hideous squeaking noise. also, not that you can really make it out in the above (VHS mode) image, they just soon embraced a look of being all busted. to be honest, the appearance was of them being like i had ritualistically slaughtered a cow (or similar), roughly cut some hide and tried to stitch it together. yes, they were also nike, which i kind of forgot when i went right ahead and bought another pair.
do you want to know what has happened to that pair? off they go on an adventure. i have diligently placed them in a receptacle which implies they will be "recycled". my understanding of what that involves means one of two paths lay ahead of these shoes. either they will be thrown into some sort of landfill site or incinerator in our country, or we will pay a developing / emerging nation (once they were called third world but that is now deemed prejudicial) an awful lot of money to take them and similar items, and then they will either throw them in an incinerator or more likely dump them in a quiet area of an ocean. wonderful how our enlightened world works.
easily the most controversial aspect of these shoes is the "gel heel" thing. i believe, but do not know as fact, that this is what makes them "air max". my suspicion is that this is a clever marketing ploy, whereby they sell you around 25% less ("fewer") shoe for more money, making the claim that it is quite class to have that there. no, this scheme is not unique to the shoe industry. think of the music business, for instance, where some record labels will sell you albums by the likes of Ed Sheridan (or whatever) or the former (ex) Mr Kym Kardassian (or whatever) instead of actual, proper music.
quite problematic, really, this "gel heel" thing. i did not really expect to have to deal with all sorts of administration matters with a new pair of shoes, but here i am. obviously this gel thing isn't marketing, with it giving my performance (so to speak) a real boost. so far i have informed the IOC of my purchase and, as expected, i am no longer allowed to compete in the Olympics due to the significant edge i have. so far them what do the Commonwealth Games have been partially more reasonable. a lot of noise is on the go about how Tyson Fury opted to retire from boxing around the time i got these shoes, but that's a bit unfair. people need to stop calling him a coward, there wasn't much beyond some provisional talks in regards of a potential bout.
i do indeed have quibbles with these shoes beyond the (not unfair) Olympic ban and being excluded from the chance of getting my f*****g head caved in by the self-styled "gypsy king". for a start they have more white elements than i really considered. annoyingly it's "shiny" white that nike have gone for, rather than a dull or if you will "off sh!t" white. this is distracting as i walk along, especially with my special stride, or strut if you like. the laces are them avant garde, oooh look at me threaded ones, which just easily tether or snap. and no, they are nowhere near as comfortable as sketchers, but the only ones of them they had close to my size were those ridiculous, stupid "slip on" ones. still, already one or two ladies have conversed with me, saying they like the shoes, so there we go. what, exactly, would i have done with a gold medal anyway?
my simple, earnest hope would be that these shoes last (considerably) longer than the previous pair. which, in practical terms, means that best they be useable for at least four (4) months, and by that i mean no development of a distressed look and very much no annoying squeaky noises. but that said, yes, assuming i make it that far, i would not be surprised to bring news of yet more new shoes later on in this very year. 2025, for clarification.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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