I’ve never been much of a shoe person. I’ve always bought shoes on sale and wouldn’t spend more than $50. After one or two years, my shoes would either fall apart of I’d get bored of them and throw them out. The only time I was really into the quality and cost of my shoes was when I was running marathons. If you’re going to be running continuously for 26.2 miles, choice of footwear becomes a major, major issue.

But who cared about work shoes. I used to wear sneakers to work, and only wore my work shoes in my carpeted office and out to lunch on the street sometimes. Then I had that problem with my heels and had to start wearing very, very comfortable well built shoes that I seemed to only find from European manufacturers. And since wearing sneakers to work is like so last millenium, I wear my comfy, comfy european shoes all day along.

Well, my foot problem is gone now thanks in great part to $2,000 worth of acupuncture treatments but after a couple of years of wearing incredibly comfy shoes, it’s hard to go back to shoes that don’t feel comfortable to walk in all day.

But I now seem to be in a different shoe phase. I am now the proud owner of three pairs of shoes that cost each $300 to $400 retail, which I bought from Ebay. The comfort level is still there, but my shoes are now more stylish not to mention they just plain look more expensive than other shoes. And I only know this because I’ve starting looking at other people’s shoes and trying to guess how much they cost retail.

There is a world of difference between very expensive shoes and cheap shoes, and you can tell just by looking at the shoes. It’s such a weird thing to be aware of, but I am, and I don’t think I’m the only one who notices such things.