What's the point of pointy shoes?

 I'll begin with, Yay!, I'm still alive. Today is the second anniversary of this date not being a memorial for me. I'm happy to still be here and I've genuinely appreciated the last two years which included wonderful experiences, equally good friendships, and, surprise, even a few new bikes. I'll keep sticking around as best I can, and that'll include a bike ride today. <Satified sigh>

Second order of business: warning, the end of this post includes a picture of my feet, which are far from a pleasant sight, so don't continue past the columb of asterisks if you have sensitive tastes, or any taste at all. Then again, you are reading this blog.

Back in the even more backward days, humans thought there was something wrong with the shape of the human form, so they'd stuff it into corsets and other implements of torture masquerading as clothing. On the small plus side, at least no fashion nonsense decided that two arms were one too many and dreamed up a monosleeve.

We did, mostly, get rid of the corset, although I do sometimes question skinny jeans, but for some reason (answer: fashion), shoes still don't follow the form of the human foot. Instead, the human foot is forced to follow the form of inhumane shoes, and yup, that causes problems.

For eons, people didn't wear shoes, and wow, natural selection works, and so did the lack of shod feet. When I was mere kid, my sister, the true runner of our family, was a fan of Mary Decker, a favored distance runner for the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. There was a lot of hype about a show down between her and Zola Budd, but unfortunately, in the 3,000 meter final, the two tangled and both just went down.

Two side notes: 1) over a decade later, I learned my then teammate, Leslie Tomlinson, had been in that race representing Canada, and 2) Zola Budd was partially famed for often running barefoot, although I believe she was shod for that unfortunate event. No, it's not impossible to not trip without shoes, but there was conjecture if deviating from her normal lack of footwear was a factor in the tumble.

Zola is not alone. There are others who question the sensibility of cramming feet into a confining space. Evolution is pretty effective. It isn't fast, but it's had a lot of time to work and resulted in a pretty reasonable end product or two, so while yes, there's protection and support offered by shoes, there are problems as well, like most toe boxes boxing feet, that would rather splay, into a point.

I'm not a kid any more, but I haven't been around long enough to evolve for my feet crammed into shoes. Instead, my body adapted, bending my outer toes inward, which pushed the joints behind them into bulbous bunions. I doubt the classic dogma of sizing cycling shoes snug helped. I gave up on small shoes a few decades ago, but still, few companies have given up pointing the toes of shoes, so my feet got bent.

Sunday, I was visiting Adele, and after hanging out in the apartment, with shoes off, we eventually decided to stroll the neighborhood, and I decided I didn't want to put my feet back in the confines of shoes, so I walked barefoot. Yes, it's been decades since I was a youngster, playing in the pond behind our house and skipping shoes for a quick skip through the woods, but walking the streets barefoot wasn't bad, and after my feet experienced that freedom, stuffing them back in shoes later decidedly was bad.

One aspect of product sponsorship was using some bits that weren't perfectly formed for me, so I developed some effective skills with knife and scissors through the years for making articles fit my not always typical body. I still have cutting tools, and my shoes were happily discard finds, so excellent subjects for some toe box opening, and I rode yesterday with my shoes flapped and my toes a little more in the breeze! Simply, it was great.

More to the point, my toes are no longer forced into a point.

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

And, you were warned.

The result of crammed feet.

I wished I'd used a knife on my shoes 50 years ago, but I wasn't allowed sharps yet.