Shop/Yard Shoes?

Some of the sketchers do look possible just looking at them. The Mariner perhaps. Look like clodhoppers but with Vibram type soles can be very light. The issue is that looks can be very deceiving. I have bought a few pairs of shoes or boots over the years that were apparently designed by some poor son of a gun that was born without feet and had no concept of what a human foot was shaped like. Perhaps they were just aliens from another planet with totally different feet.

Regardless, I'm going to have to find some shoes I can try on when I am swapping brands and styles. This thread has given me a bunch of good leads, no way to know which will pan out and which won't. The sketchers are listed at a store near the Cabalas, this is the first time I have seen any of them that looked like a daily use shoe. The hardest criteria to meet these days is finding soles that don't look like the tread on an offroad truck tire. Along with being chief cook and bottle washer I do the housekeeping too and tracking in a pound or three of clay on each shoe won't make my day.

I'm sure there are some shoes out there. I can't be the only one that wants a comfortable work shoe that isn't out of place in an office or a shop. I need to do some welding too, a good reason not to go with shoes with manmade cloth type panels. Almost ruined a foot welding wearing synthetic shoes and socks. Felt the foot getting hot in the middle of running a bead, before I knew it I had melted a large chunk of shoe and plastic sock to my foot! Ruined the shoe and sock, nasty infection in a very tender location, most of the top of my foot. Didn't stop me from driving the dirt track car I was welding on that night of course but I hobbled around my business for a couple three weeks.

I'm going to write all of the brand names down before I head out shopping. I once had a high arch, high instep, and wide foot. As I have aged it has became a more typical foot but I still need to keep all options open. As always hoping to find something that works really well, not just barely adequate. That is why I am barefooting now, I wasn't willing to settle for something that might work but I really didn't like the last several times I launched a shoe search. A little more pressure to find something this time; I have large holes in my leather uppers, can't remember that happening in the last thirty years or so.

Hu

I've had mixed luck with Sketchers boots. I bought one pair sometime in the 90's and man those shoes took a beating, lasted forever and were worked pretty hard to. I used them for hiking (and some heavy hiking to) and yard work and ... etc.. and they just kept rolling (probably 6? years of hard wearing). They were really comfortable to wear to.

Having had that great experience once those went to the great shoe store in the sky (actually I donated them to my mom who had some crazy "plants in shoes" thing going on at the time) I bought another pair of the exact same style and they were trash in less than six months. The stitches all let go and the sole separated and came off. Disappointed doesn't begin to describe it.

Its been a long time but I think they might have been these ones: http://www.skechers.com/style/6643/bruiser/cdb

So if they're good like the first pair I got you'll be happy as a pig in the puddle assuming they fit well (I have a narrower foot and especially heel so that style might not line up with you), if not you'll be grumpy as a grouse in a snowstorm. I couldn't really see a visible build quality difference either until the failure kicked in.

Thanks Jim,

Hu i can relate to your story of feet getting burnt through man made shoes. I have had that happen just from grinding sparks and running shoes using a hand grinder. Thats why i really want leather now and nice thick leather that sure will take a bit of breaking in but once done oooooh so comfy. You do make a good point about the soles tracking in dirt though.