LikeTheDew.com

My knees hurt and it ticks me off. There’s nothing wrong with my knees, but my exercise shoes have worn slap out and the lack of proper support makes my knees hurt. I’m mad in advance over the hassle I’ll have to go through to find a pair of new ones.I am NOT driving to Atlanta for this.

You see, I’m a victim of shoe size discrimination. I wear a 9½ narrow or AA. For some reason, most manufacturers don’t bother to make this size. Of the few that make 9½, even fewer make them in the narrow width. Need a 9 narrow? No problem. Need a 10 narrow? No problem. Need a 9½ narrow? Prepare for a long drawn-out shopping expedition. To add insult to injury, it’s getting worse, not better.

Now, I’m not one of those women who love to shop. Even though my daddy owned a department store and I could shop my little heart out pretty much whenever I wanted, I hate shopping. Recreational shopping, as in “Let’s go to the mall and see what we can find!” is right up there on my list with “Gee, you’re gonna need a root canal for that.”

Shopping for shoes, back before I became a wise woman, would reduce me to tears of frustration. One weekend I tried on 62 pairs of black pumps, and found not one that fit. Multiple shoe salesmen (this was before everything was do-it-yourself) would tell me this brand ran narrow, so a medium would do. Or this brand has a narrow heel. Or that leather will form itself to fit your foot. I walked in Rich’s once, selected a shoe and said, “Do you have this in a 9 ½ narrow?” The super skinny young metrosexual of an associate (they aren’t clerks any more) looked me in the eye, laughed, and said “You’ve, like, got to be, like, kidding me. Right?”

The manager of the Rack Room Shoe store in Athens told me once that there wasn’t a single 9½ narrow  in his store. He didn’t even have to look it up! Once, I got lucky and found my size on a T.J. Maxx rack. Once.

This all makes me all the more mad at Vince Dooley for firing Hugh Durham in 1995. Hugh’s wife, Melinda, had a great little store called Slippers. She sometimes had my size in stock, but if she didn’t, she could always get it for me. I bought my wedding shoes there because she ordered them in my size. She would keep an eye out for shoes that I’d like. The prices were at the upper end of my price range, so I couldn’t buy lots of shoes, but I knew I could always count on Melinda. I bought my daughter’s wedding shoes there. Alas, Melinda chose to sell the store and move to Florida with Hugh, clearly a case of misplaced priorities.

A few months ago, I dropped in Slippers, which is still a cute shoe headquarters in Athens, saying, “I have a serious cute shoe deficit. Help!” The owner, sweet Amy Bray, whom I still think of as the “new” one, told me that none of her manufacturers even make size 9½ shoes, much less narrow ones. She was truly sorry. But didn’t I need a cute purse or belt?

Several years ago, I was in New York for a meeting. Thinking I might have better luck in the Big Apple, I spent most of a day looking for shoes. At one point, a clerk, um, associate, in Lord & Taylor told me, “Everyone knows rich women have narrow feet.” That was her explanation for why I might get lucky in their $600-shoe section. Well, I ain’t rich, and even if I were, I sure as hell wouldn’t pay $600 for a pair of shoes unless they’ll also wash my hose and mix me a nightcap.

Finally, I decided to do some scientific research into the issue. I entered “Why don’t they make narrow shoes?” in the search box for both Google and Bing. The answers I found, all in blogs or comments on blogs were as follows:

Because all women really have wide feet, they just lie about it.

The lasts (form to make the shoes) are too expensive.

They make them, but out of pure meanness, stores don’t order them.

Women with narrow feet are such a tiny minority, they shouldn’t expect shoes that fit.

My BS detector went to work immediately. I don’t know more now than I did when I started. I’m grateful for Lamar-Lewis, our million-year-old downtown Athens shoe store, the one where you take the kids for their first pair of Stride-Rites and where glitzy grandmas can still buy gold house slippers. The selection is limited and the shoes are mostly sensible, but Miss Diane tries really hard to find shoes for me. They’re having less and less luck. And Miss Diane is ready to retire. Things don’t look good.

I have found one American manufacturer, Munroe, that makes good shoes in my size. A bit pricey, but they work for business shoes. My real shoe salvation is Zappos.com. If it comes in a 9½  narrow, they probably have it. Even that isn’t a fit guarantee, so I end up sending most of them back, celebrating the occasional success.

I’d start a petition, but I don’t know which Chinese manufacturer to send it to. I’ve heard that petitions have less impact over there than here. Crazy Paul Broun is my Congressman, so I’m pretty sure I can’t get any relief that way, at least not until Jesus tells him to do it. No way I’m getting foot surgery like those crazy women in New York, so my foot will fit the shoes. It’s supposed to be the other way around! Guess I’m stuck in sensible shoes, buying multiples when I find one that fits. (That’s a lesson I learned from Jackie O. Saves shopping time, too.)  I figure in about ten years, they won’t make 9 ½ narrow shoes at all. Anywhere.

Thank God for flip-flops.

1. chrys says:

   August 13, 2009 at 10:23 pm

   Myra: I feel your pain. I have had bad feet for years although my size is a standard 7. I hate to shop for shoes. I had foot surgery years ago and have had a terrible time since then finding shoes that are comfortable and that don’t look matronly (ie. ugly). Not an easy task. One of my longings for “the good old days” is to have a salesperson (associate) who can find me a pair of shoes.

   Reply
2. Mary Lee (aka Bootsie Lucas) says:

   August 14, 2009 at 8:13 am

   Myra,

   I wish I had a dollar for every pair of shoes I’ve tried on that didn’t work for me. When I shopped at Rich’s, the salespeople in the shoe department would run away if they saw me coming. I wear a 6 1/2 or 7, but I have a fat little foot with a narrow heel. Up until I was in my 20s or 30s, I could find shoes in a B width and a AA heel. But then all the little shoemakers moved to China or wherever, and shoes like that could no longer be found, unless I wanted to mortgage my house to buy a pair of “salon” shoes. What women want: a good haircut and shoes that fit.

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3. Jane says:

   August 14, 2009 at 10:00 am

   Myra,
   I grew up wondering why my dear mother wore such ugly shoes. “Clodhoppers” my sister and I called them. At a size 10 1/2 AA, it is now no wonder. She had to accept anything she could find. As women’s feet have grown larger, this should be less of a problem, but the “narrow” adds another challenge.

   I fortunately inherited many of my mother’s delightful qualities but not her foot size or width. However, is it peculiar that I became a 9 wide when both of my parents have narrow feet? I swear I do resemble them otherwise!

   But my mother and I both treasure her feet. They lead her to my father. Just out of college, they met at a church event where the gals had to take their shoes off and toss them in a huge pile. The guys then selected a shoe out of the pile to meet the shoe’s rightful owner. No glass slippers allowed. My father had first checked out my mom’s smile and then memorized her “sail-a-ship” shoes. No problem bee-lining for the largest pair of penny loafers in the pile!

   The rest is history!

   So I only wish for you the luck my mother’s feet have brought her.

   –Jane

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4. Barbara Beardsley says:

   August 14, 2009 at 3:45 pm

   Myra:
   Appreciated this since Mark wears a 13 AAA!! Can you imagine what we have been through all these years? A teacher at the local elementary school used to dress up like a clown for the annual PTA Carnival and she always borrowed his shoes to go with her costume. No joke! Recently we discovered the SAS Shoe Outlet here in Commerce which carries weird sizes but one needs a bank loan to buy the shoes. We bit the bullet and bought a pair which is probably the first really comfortable shoes he’s owned.
   We can relate!
   -Barbara

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5. Shirley says:

   September 10, 2009 at 10:20 pm

   I’m also a victim of shoe size discrimination. Always wore 10w after children.. Gained a whole lot of weight, went to 11w. Have lost most of it, but not enough to get back to size 10. I need 10 1/2 w. All the catalogs have 1/2 sizes through size 9, and then it stops. Really makes me angry. Absolutely impossible to find in a retail store. Finally found an internet retailer that has lots of them, but the prices are outrageous. ex: bedroom slippers 89.00

   Reply