Regular readers (reader?) might know: I can get a little obsessive. I’ve always been obsessive about clothes. And recently, especially, I’ve become obsessive about exploring and wearing high quality clothes–to the point of almost ruining my relationships with Ella and Karen. Take my boots. This winter I decided to buy new boots. Each night I spent hours researching the exact best boots. Here’s what I did: First, I looked around to see what I liked–what best fit the way I feel about myself and my style. Then I read forums, style sites. After this, I choose five or six options. Then, finally, for every shoe, I read every single comment on Zappos. The shoes I ended up buying, the Chippewa American Handcrafted GQ Apache Lacer Boot, had 53 reviews on Amazon–I read every single one. From the reviews of my boot, I learned that you should order one size down, and that the shoes run a bit narrow (a point I ignored to disastrous consequence). Finally, I priced shop, and ended up buying my boots from Amazon.
All that research, and obsessive comment reading, took many hours–hours that I probably should’ve spent reading, or writing, or spending time with Karen and Ella. But when I got the shoes, I knew I had the best pair I ever owned–I loved the look, feel, everything. A succinct Chippewa Boot review: wearing the boots, standing over my baby daughter, I feel more powerful and manly.
But they were definitely narrow, and soon I realized that they were simply too narrow to wear comfortably. This led to a month-long odyssey. I took the shoes to three (three!) different cobblers to no fucking avail, and then finally, after contacting the company, and exhaustively researching shoe stretchers, I bought a $30 shoe stretcher that did the trick. Now I wear the boots comfortably–and I probably will for years.
This obsessiveness has also helped me learn the necessary information about ulcerative colitis–so that I essentially live symptom free. It’s also helped my writing. I believe: Research + experience = decisions that you don’t regret. Especially with clothes.