Not Worth It!

There are many, many shoes out there in many, many women's closets that look really amazing and are the focal point of a whole look but also cause agony, blisters, numbness and disfigurement..  I have a few pairs of these shoes that I suffer in (hello, mint green platform heels that I wore to my brothers wedding!) because of the benefits of confidence and compliments and having a standout accessory. 

Most of these kinds of shoes can be identified by their attractive looks, heel height and how much of the shoe is made of straps.  I have a pair of lurkers, however, that you would never guess would want to hurt the wearer.  These shoes look wholesome and innocent but...they have a dark side.

 

I bought these back in 2009.  Sometimes TJ Maxx has these tables of clearance goods where they just throw everything on the table because they really want that crap out of the store.  These tables are not categorized so you can find candles, picture frames, boxes of tea, and toys all on one table usually with a red tag price of a few dollars.  It was on a table like this that I spotted these canvas flats, with the label of $3.00 on top of a stack of yellow and red tags that had to have been 5 or 6 deep.  Well, for $3.00...of COURSE I could use them!  They are Naturalizer, which is a brand I would usually not give the time to and when I was 26 I SHOULD not have been wearing it at all.  But, and I still feel the same, they were cute! 

 

Soon after I rescued them from the closeout table at TJ Maxx I went to Chicago with my cousins to visit my aunt and uncle.  They were going to a Cubs v. Twins baseball game and my cousin didn't know what shoes to wear with her MN Twins shirt.  I had the Naturalizers with, and I told her she could wear them since they would go well with the red in her shirt.  She felt bad because they were new but I insisted since they cost $3.00. 

 

Well, that evening they returned from the game and she gave me the news that the Naturalizers (which I believe is marketed as a comfort brand!) blistered and tore her heels so bad that she bled in the shoes and had to buy some cheap flip flops on the street!  Yikes.  She felt bad about getting blood on my shoes, I didn't care because they cost $3.00 and we washed them in the washing machine and forgot all about it. 

 

I only wore them with socks a few times after that and then kind of forgot about them when fall came.  When I was looking at my shoes last night I decided to rediscover them for a short trip to the mall and...

 

Yes, they haven't changed.  That thing hurts.  I was swimming laps this morning and the water swishing over my heels even caused me pain.  I think the Naturalizers are done. Some shoes are worth a day of pain after wearing them but these are not part of that category.  Although, I can already hear them saying "keep me!  We are cute!  Can't you picture us at a picnic or something with white shorts and that plaid shirt from H&M?"