(I have these shoes in all white, but this is the picture I could find.)
I am not much of a shoe person. My idea of a good pair of shoes is that it will match a variety of outfits, last for a long time, and easy to take off because more often than not I am not wearing any shoes at all. In fact, you will find at least one pair of my shoes by every door in our house in case I need to put on shoes to go outside.
A few weeks ago I realized that my old pair of sandals were sadly about to die so I went shoe shopping at a new shoe store in hopes of finding something cute and comfortable. I guess the other thing I forgot to mention is that it is hard for me to find shoes because I either get a certain idea in my head, can't get the straps over the funny bone that sticks up on top of my foot, they don't have the shoes I like in my size, or I just can't bring myself to pay more than $10 to $20 for a pair of shoes. So at this new store I find out that most of the shoes are more than my typical price range but they have a ton of cute shoes! I quickly come to the conclusion, especially after spending the last couple of years wasting time at Payless and not finding anything I like for me, that I need to adjust my thoughts on acceptable price range for shoes.
As I wander through the store to check out their selection and pricing of kids shoes (I still think these were too much because my kids grow too fast, but they do have some awesome sales that bring the prices way down) I found the "specialty" gym shoe section. Now if anyone has looked into buying these shape-up shoes you can imagine how hard I gagged over the price of these shoes. A HUGE extravagance was what the price tag told me, but I felt the need to try on a pair anyway.
I have been having trouble walking and standing with this pregnancy and the only time I found that I was not in pain was when I was in a store that had an extra squishy, foam rubber like floor. I wanted to stay there for hours just because it was the first time in months I was not in pain just from standing up. After I described this relief to a friend she mentioned that her husband had a pair of Shape-Ups and they had an extra squishy sole and I might want to try those.
Which brings us back to my feeling the need to try these shoes on. My checkbook wishes I hadn't, but my body is so glad I did. I tried the shoes on and walked the length of one shoe aisle and almost cried because the pain was much more bearable and walking did not seem like an unconquerable feat. I still had to walk the length of the store a couple of more times (with my normal shoes on) and try out a variety of sandals before coming to the conclusion that those shoes were worth the price tag. I even tried on a cheaper version of the Shape-Up shoes without getting the same comfort results.
Since purchasing the Shape-Up shoes I can't tell you if my butt and legs are more toned, but I can tell you I am able to do more walking, housework, shopping, and stairs (my house has a lot of them). For example, one of the first days I wore the shoes I found out how valuable they were. I started the morning trying to clean off one three foot section of my kitchen counter and hurt so bad that I had to to go lay down for a while. Then I put my shoes on and returned to cleaning the kitchen. I was able to stand up long enough to clean the other six or seven feet of countertop, sweep and mop the floor, load and unload the dishwasher twice, and scrub the kitchen sink back to its stainless steel appearance. I still had to take breaks because of energy shortage, but it was awesome to stand up long enough to do a few things without being in horrible pain.
To make a short story long, I love these shoes and recommend them to anyone who is looking for comfortable, padded shoes to help ease back, joint, pelvic, and hip pain. The Sketcher Shape-Ups are definitely worth the price tag.
