Whoa… Slow Down

I really needed a new pair of running shoes and have been leaning towards trying minimalist shoes.  I’ve heard a bunch of talk about New Balance Minimus shoes.  It just so happened that while I was on a date I spied a New Balance store and decided to stop in.

The Minimus is so expensive; the model I like is $90!

It’s hard to drop $90 on an experiment.  What if I don’t like minimal shoes?  Then I have $90 shoes to … what? Walk in?  I walk in heels.  I have a closet full of strappy, gorgeous sandals for summer.  Or, if I’m slumming it, I have loads of flip flops.  Cleveland doesn’t have a lot of nice, warm days.  When it does, I want naked feet.   So I don’t want $90 running shoes I can’t run in.

Anyway, I walked into the New Balance store and the manager immediately decided to “fit” me.   So I walked across the paper to check my foot type and the manager immediately decided that the Minimus was not the shoe for me.  He also decided that the the $60 shoes I liked weren’t for me either.

I decided I would allow him to shoe me the shoes he thought would be right for my training (for the Columbus Marathon in October). Minutes later the manager emerged with 3 boxes of shoes and a package of inserts.

The first pair of shoes the manager recommended were $144!  I was having a hard time with $90 shoes and was checking out $60 shoes and the manager decides that I’m going to be shelling out $144 for shoes?  And he had inserts too.  For $144, they better do the running for me and there’s no way on earth I should need accessories.

I’m almost embarrassed to say this, but on top of being insanely expensive, the $144 shoes were some of the ugliest shoes I’ve ever seen.  Look:

I would never wear these.  I’m not an elite runner so there is no way I need $144 shoes.  And if I was an elite runner, I would be sponsored and wouldn’t be paying for my own $144 shoes.  The way a shoe looks is still important to me.  I’ve run many a race in Nikes and Asics I bought at Kohl’s when they were on sale and I had a 30% off coupon.  And I have a few pairs of more expensive Asics.  There was little difference between the cheap pairs and the expensive pairs.  The biggest difference is how well the shoes last.

The next pair of shoes the dude had me try on were equally ugly, but less expensive.  At $114, they were surely a bargain.

Luckily at that moment, more customers entered the store.  So I peaked into the last box the manager had brought out for me.  It contained the ugliest sandals I had ever seen.

I hate salespeople that treat me like a chump.  He could have probably sold me the $90 Minimus with little problem.  But no, he had to grab the two most expensive pairs of shoes in the store and try and get me to buy them.  And his dreams included selling me inserts and ugly sandals.  I came in the store wearing gorgeous strappy sandals and he thinks I’m going to buy gross, old lady sandals.

So I came home and ordered a new pair of Nikes off amazon.  They are super cute but are more than I really wanted to spend.

Here are my new shoes:

They are super cute and airy but the padding is rather strange.  It hits right before my heel in almost a straight line.  I did a 2 mile run this evening in them and it was significantly different than my Asics but I think it’ll be fine.

Anyway, the moral of this story is that salespeople shouldn’t be so greedy.  I ended up paying $75 for shoes.  A $75 sale is much better than the no sale the salesman got because he made me uncomfortable when he came out with such ridiculously priced shoes.

And, I may end up with a pair of Minimus, but I think I’ll ask for them as a Christmas gift.