I have been wearing the same crap pair of shoes to work for over two years. I bought them at Payless in 2009 and then a few months after that I bought some insoles to try to make them more comfortable. The "leather" on them has peeled off, they are cracked and the laces are more frayed than my nerves on a brunch shift. I only wear them at work so I didn't really care. It's not that I couldn't
afford a new pair of shoes, it's just that I resent buying clothing and shoes that I will only wear when I am serving food. It pisses me off. A few weeks ago I was approached by
Shoes For Crews and was told they would give me a free pair of work shoes in exchange for a review. You know my cheap-ass ears pricked up when the word "free" made itself known. I also knew Shoes For Crews from having bought my first pair many chicken fried steaks ago when I worked at Black Eyed Pea. I am also going to be giving out FOUR FREE PAIR for you, readers. Details on that later.
My Review of Shoes For Crews
I ordered a pair of
Vibe II Shoes in a size 7 1/2. I went to the
Shoes For Crews website and looked at all my
options but I chose them because they looked comfortable, I liked the lace up kind of shoe versus a slip on and how could I resist the name of Vibe II? They showed up at my door one week later and the next day I wore them to work. First off, let me say, they are very comfortable. I practically floated to work because they are as light as homemade meringue unlike my Payless shoes that were so heavy they made me walk like I had a case of the clubfoot. All Shoes For Crews are slip resistant which is oh so very important in a restaurant. There are a lot of good
reasons to wear slip resistant shoes at work, the number one reason being that you won't slip and bust your ass on the hard tile floor. I've done it when I worked at Bennigan's and they encouraged us to wear shitty Converse high tops. Those shoes have no support and they practically invite you to slide across a walk-in floor that is covered with Ranch dressing. Falling once into a pile of disgusting and getting your uniform dirty will make you forever praise the value of non-slip work shoes. My new Vibe II shoes do not slip!
When I put them on, the
corn on my right foot gave me a look that said, "Aww, man! I can't stay here anymore, it's too roomy." These new shoes give my toes some room to breath which is a welcome relief. They fit my foot well without giving too much room so my heel slips out. Another thing I like about the shoes is that they came with a little scraper that I can use to get all the crap off the bottom. You know what I mean? Say you accidentally stepped on some old rotten cherry tomatoes that you dropped in the sidestand and were too lazy to pick up (it happens) and you didn't realize it until that night when you took your shoes off and saw all this gunk dried in the tread of the shoes. Before, I would have had to use a butter knife or an espresso spoon to scrape that shit out of the there, but Shoes For Crews gives you a handy dandy scarper for just that purpose. It's freakin' genius. The only thing more I could ask of these shoes is that they do my sidework for me. You should totally get a pair for yourself!
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I have been wearing the same crap pair of shoes to work for over two years. I bought them at Payless in 2009 and then a few months after that I bought some insoles to try to make them more comfortable. The "leather" on them has peeled off, they are cracked and the laces are more frayed than my nerves on a brunch shift. I only wear them at work so I didn't really care. It's not that I couldn't afford a new pair of shoes, it's just that I resent buying clothing and shoes that I will only wear when I am serving food. It pisses me off. A few weeks ago I was approached by Shoes For Crews and was told they would give me a free pair of work shoes in exchange for a review. You know my cheap-ass ears pricked up when the word "free" made itself known. I also knew Shoes For Crews from having bought my first pair many chicken fried steaks ago when I worked at Black Eyed Pea. I am also going to be giving out FOUR FREE PAIR for you, readers. Details on that later.
What do you have to wear for shoes at your job? It's one of the things I hate the most about putting together a work uniform/costume because shoes are too freakin' expensive to begin with. And then to have to buy a pair that you are only going to wear at work and eventually you see them covered in coffee, ketchup and tears. At my most recent job, I was required to buy a very specific pair of shoes so that they would match the decor of the restaurant. Unlike normal eateries, this place wanted shoes based on style rather than comfort or safety. We were asked to wear Converse or Vans or Keds or some similar sneaker and they needed to be a certain shade as well. They encouraged us to look for these shoes at thrift stores in order to "go green" but like anyone is going to buy a pair of used shoes. You may as well just put out a welcome home sign for bed bugs, cooties and bacteria. So I splurged and bought some really cute tan colored Vans that I thought I would wear outside the job too. However, once I wore them at work for more than a couple of hours, I knew these would only be work shoes. I have never noticed before, but sneakers like that have absolutely no support and wearing them on hard floors all day was not good for the dogs. In addition, they have no resistance, so slipping was a common occurrence. "Oh, what? You slipped and busted your ass and your arches have fallen? Pity. Your shoes are darling though and they go so well with the decor."
