the joy of blucher mocs (part two)

Blucher mocs, broken in, though not mine. These are from an eBay listing.

Read part one by clicking on this link.

When we last left this story, I had just purchased my new L.L. Bean Blucher Mocs and had put them on for the first time..

L.L. Bean provides a good description of their products in the catalog and website, but they don’t tell you in the catalog description about the break-in period or how they look when you first buy them. Not much anyway. I read about the break-in period on the little cards that came in the shoe box. They read ‘allow two to three wearings to evaluate fit of shoes.’ More like ten.

They should also have a card that says ‘shoe will be really stiff and weird-looking for the first several wears.’ Because it was. They looked like brown cardboard at first and they were a little hard to tie, because of the stiffness. I wore them to work sockless (gotta be cool, y’know) and had to walk to lunch, which was about a mile or so round trip on concrete and asphalt. I got calluses on my toes and some serious heel pain. Now, I thought, I know a little about what women put themselves through to wear cute shoes, but I’d like to think that a smart woman would have kept a pair of sneakers for the walk to lunch. Not me, of course. I have to be the dumbass that suffers through the pain. I wondered if Eddy had to go through this with his, too. But then again he wouldn’t have walked in them to lunch downtown.

The strange thing about my dogged determination to wear these shoes regardless of good sense may have paid off in the long run. I can’t say when it happened, but somewhere between then and now, the shoes finally broke in. Now when I wear them, they are soft, and easy to tie. They no longer look like boats, but rather an extension of my body. It’s still missing the well-loved patina of Eddy’s but that will come in time. Since they’re now comfortable, non-callus forming “cool shoes” I feel confident wearing them. They look great with all the new clothes I bought. And because they’re so out the local consciousness, but so appropriate fashion-wise, I get all sorts of compliments and inquiries about where I bought them. That feels good.

I finally got the shoe that I wanted for years and they’re cool and comfortable. Maybe this new-found comfort is what the goobers get when they wear their common boat shoes. That’s no explanation for the various other sartorial disasters they commit, but it’s a start at understanding that I didn’t have before. In any event, I’m looking forward to a long life with my Blucher Mocs, courtesy of 7th grade material lust, Eddy Hicklin, and a mid-year shopping binge. Isn’t life great?