The TOMS in question
Back when I was very young, and also very naïve (okay, so it was roughly around this time in 2011), I wrote an article for my University student-run newspaper lambasting the campus trend of TOMS shoes. In the article I referred to TOMS as “some of the most unfortunate-looking footwear on the market,” claiming that they “look like someone wrapped your feet in a medical tensor bandage and glued on a rubber sole.”
Since then TOMS appear to have continuously risen in popularity and are no longer relegated to the back rows of campus halls, where students are too lazy to throw on outfits that involve actual pants. Now, TOMS are liberally scattered all across the city of Toronto and beyond, and have evolved from a shoe for casually dressed women to a shoe for casually dressed women…and men. During the summer I had the dubious pleasure of attending a real, live “frat party” in which a large portion of the male population were clad in their favourite canvas plimsolls. My natural inclination was simply to tweet: “Too many dudes wearing TOMS at the frat house.”
In any event, the tides have turned and my opinions on TOMS have slowly changed. I still think that they more or less look like medical bandages, but I am more and more sympathetic to the idea that some people just want to wear comfortable shoes. After the umpteenth time clomping around the city in $15 Chinatown mary jane shoes with soles flimsier than Rob Ford’s integrity, all I could think about was: maybe I need some freaking TOMS. It would be great to be able to walk around without feeling every single pebble on the sidewalk lodge itself into the sole of my foot, so maybe these TOMS-wearers are onto something?
A quick perusal of their website produced a pair of black sequin lace-up TOMS. Since I threw away my plastic American Apparel oxford flats — too many blisters – I have been at a loss for plain black oxford flats. Perhaps these sequin TOMS could be considered ‘cheating’ from a fashion perspective, but damned if I care. For once in my life, I want shoes that make me feel like I am walking on clouds instead of hot coals.
Though I do find it mildly horrifying that I am considering purchasing a pair of shoes that I once publicly roasted, I am learning that people’s general interests and priorities change over time, and that is not something that we should feel bad or guilty about. Some people might call me a hypocrite, but I just call it growing up. Hypocrisy be damned, life is much too short to wear painful shoes.
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Isabel Slone is a Toronto-based fashion blogger and writer. Follow her on Twitter at @isabelslone.
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