By the time I finally get around to ordering a new pair of running shoes, my old, beloved, trusted model is usually long gone. I scour the online sources...shoe stores, Amazon, eBay....and at times I've gotten lucky. But more typically, not. I grieve. I search. I bravely try to keep my chin and my cadence up.
Each time it seems to get harder. The breakup with the yellow shoes was particularly crushing. They carried me through an amazing 2012 season.
Why don't I just order several pairs at once? Well, that's risky. Sometimes shoe love is instantaneous and passionate, but turns out to be blister-inducing and short-lived. I don't want a shoebox stack of reminders of failed shoe relationships. Other times it's a slow-growing love, and by the time I realize I'm forefoot-over-heels in love, it's too late to find more.
Thin-soled and broken down, I begin the search for a shoe anew.
Tonight I sent an email to our local running store (RunAbout Sports) asking them to order my chosen new shoes, already seeing in my mind where this would lead. I imagined it triggered this sequence of events:
- Shoe company is alerted that I have selected their shoe
- Shoe company sends one pair to me
- Shoe company immediately halts production on my chosen color and size combination plus a half size up and down, but continues to make plenty of the chosen color in size 5's and 11's that will taunt me for months to come
- Agents are deployed to buy up and destroy any remaining inventory of chosen color and size
- New model is announced the following day, all in undesirable colors
- The shoe I just bought goes on sale
These were my 2011 favs.
These were going to be my 2013 shoes, but this relationship is wearing out.
And no, I'm not telling you what shoes I have ordered lest I should love them and need as much inventory out there as possible!!
Oh, and Saucony, I think you should have an option for custom colors on the Kinvara. And please go back to the eyelet style of the originals and 2's. That worked much better with stretchy laces. And can we have a few more pink-free choices? Yes, I'd be happy to be on your advisory board ;-)
