Betwixt Foot and Shoe

Alright, time for a little story from my actual life.

You know how there are some people who, for reasons of fashion or personal comfort or whatever, go through the entire summer in jeans?

That’s not me.

When the temperature ticks above sixty degrees for three days in a row in April, the shorts come out, and they stay at the forefront of my wardrobe until fall arrives and the temperature drops into the mid-fifties.

I like to give my arms and legs some air. Also, my toes. I’ve got a nice pair of sandals with good arch support, and those serve as my primary footwear for basically half the year.

The other half?

Well, that brings me to a few days ago.

My previous pair of closed-toed shoes had, by the spring, degraded to such a degree that they were no longer fit for going out in public. Hence, they retired to the countryside. Which is to say: they became my lawn mowing shoes.

Thus, with the fall looming, I needed a new pair. And, since my old preferred style had been discontinued, I needed to go somewhere I could try some things on. So, I set off for the mall, wearing my sandals, and bringing with me a pair of socks to put on when I got there.

At least, that was the plan. In practice, the socks didn’t make it further than the little table by the door to the garage, where I put them down to grab my wallet and keys and never picked them back up.

But no bother, right? After all, my sock drawer could probably use a bit of a refresh, too. Why not avoid the weird bootie things they offer, buy a pack of socks at the store, use a pair to try on shoes, and bring the rest home?

But then, I saw, to my delight, single pairs of socks for sale! And from a company I had heard advertised often on podcasts! Certainly, this would be the most economically sound option, right?

WRONG!

Because each pair–as in, two socks–was FIFTEEN DOLLARS!

Today, we are selling a twelve-pack of socks for three dollars more than that. Are they as good as the socks I saw at the mall? Probably not. But, on the other hand (or foot?), they are, at the end of the day, socks. A little bit of compression, a little bit of stretch, “heat-release technology.” Whatever that means. What I’m getting at is that I doubt they’re twelve times worse.

Which is all to say, you may look at this sale and think, I don’t need socks right now. But you will at some point. And when you do, you might be shocked at how much socks cost these days.

So maybe just invest in some new socks now while they’re cheap.