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Very stupid question

This is bound to stir up trouble for me, but I don't honestly know the answer and I really want to know.

During the period of time that I was recovering from my 3 foot operations, I had loads of swelling and could not get a normal shoe on. The post surgery shoe the hospital gave me had no tread on it and was going to get me killed if the sidewalks or parking lots were wet. Give a cripple a shoe that makes them slip and slide. That's way funny.

So I went to WalMart and got loads of imitation Converse shoes in various sizes for various amounts of swelling and hacked them up with a razor, a knife, scissors and a seam ripper.

This is the period of time when I gave up on orthotics. Orthotics cut through $5-10 cotton shoes like crazy so I could not wear them.

Imitation Converse are zero drop. They have next to no padding. They are flexible and light. The ones I get don't even have the rubber toe cap. I don't like the rubber toe cap feeling.

While you are complaining about the cost of this shoe and that shoe, why don't you just buy Chuck Taylor's Converse? Not even the real Converse with extra bling costs as much as some of the shoes you guys are wailing over the cost of. How about the plain ones we grew up with? What's wrong with them? What am I missing?

I wear moccasins all the time and imitation Converse when it rains to get a rubber sole. To make me run, you'd have to set my house on fire, so I'm sure I'm missing something here, and I really want to know what it is.

But I really want to know why you are paying more and more for less and less shoe and trying to reinvent the wheel(to me), when plain Converse are cheap and imitation ones are so much cheaper and have always been there?

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Answers and Replies

82

NO such thing as a dumb question. I looked into the same shoe because of the price. Whether it be real Chucks or Wally World versions I personally find the soul to thick. This may be because I am either barefoot or wear a 4mm thick sandal... Wokova Feather. In the winter I wear a 5mm soul Chokta Mukluk. I'm not sure how thick the canvas shoes are as but it sure feels thick and heavy in comparison. I think for many people like us who are not runners and looking for zero drop they are a very viable option.

953

You make some very valid points. There is nothing that says a pair of cheap imitation Converse shoes can't work for casual use. There are other brands and models of cheap shoes that can work as well (like the Feiyue Wushu for example). It really all depends on what you like and what you are using them for. I do a lot of outdoor activity (running, hiking, backpacking, etc.), and canvas street shoes just don't cut it for me in those conditions.

My issue with many of the cheaper options is that they are often not designed around an anatomic last, so my toes get squeezed more than I like. To fully develop your foot in a healthy fashion, having enough room in the toebox for your toes to splay naturally is important. For someone with a narrower foot than myself, the cheaper options may be fine in that regard.

As zabala, I also prefer a thinner sole for everyday use and found the Chuck Taylor styles to often be thicker than I like. While I really liked the sole of the Feiyues, I found they were to narrow and pointy for me.

If you have found something that works well for you, then by all means share it with us in the forums. You are probably not the only one who could benefit from that information!

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