Trending
Did you know that 97.4 percent of foot injuries are caused by improper footwear?
It's a frightening statistic. That's why I made it up. We should all be frightened by the tragic, nay, near-criminal inattention to this endemic public health threat.
"Go home and put on work boots," I admonish grandsons when they show up in flip-flops to, say, split firewood. A misplaced sledge stroke and they are clubfoot for life.
I myself try to set an example by wearing sturdy boots, preferably steel-toed, for such tasks.
Each day as I set out on my busy retiree work day, I assess which of my many pairs of boots or shoes is the right one for the job or activity ahead. Arrayed in the mud-area by our front door are three or four of my current favorites in the present season, and in my closet, many, many more. These are my tools, every bit as much as a saw or hammer, and I must choose the right pair for the job.
Am I going to be working on a slope? In the wet? In the mud? On a roof? Am I going to be walking a lot? Lifting heavy objects? Will I need to change on-site into other footwear, such as rubber boots?
I should mention that all my shoes and boots came from yard sales. Not a one purchased retail. I distrust footwear that hasn't been broken in. Also, I'm very, very cheap.
The other day I spotted a likely looking pair of hightop black boots at a yard sale, in my size. I picked them up and found them to be light as a feather and in like-new condition. I was stunned and somewhat dismayed, however, to discover they had side-zippers in addition to normal laces.
"I don't know how I feel about work boots with zippers," I said doubtfully to the gentleman selling them. (I do have a certain manly image to protect.)
"I paid a hundred dollars for those boots," the man said. "They have steel toes."
Steel toes and side-zippers? What kind of a crazy world are we living in?
But I was intrigued, paid the $15 asking price, wore them and fell in love.
The internet reveals they are Bates Lightweights. They are not cheap, though the hundred-dollar claim might be a stretch. My only issue is that when I sit to take them off I sometimes unlace them out of habit.
(The plum of my boot collection is a 1983 pair of Kastinger Austrian stormtrooper boots in perfect condition. The leather uppers are soft as gloves. These boots would fetch about $150 on eBay. I can't bring myself to wear them, or sell them.)
Work boots aside, there are troubling trends in what Americans choose to wear in public: teenage boys with untied sneakers or breaking down the back of the shoe out of sloth; women wearing pajama pants and Crocs in Walmart. I don't take undue pride in the image I present to the world, but it's sad to see people who have completely given up. Don't get me started.
When I was a college kid, I worked a couple of summers at Crucible Steel in Midland, Pa., where my dad was employed as a scheduler in the Cold Strip. A prerequisite for the job was a pair of work boots with not only steel toes but metatarsal guards: big pads that sit atop the arch of the foot. They were costly, but I was earning the princely wage of $3.25 an hour - very rich for a summer job then.
Those mill boots were my sole work boots for many years. I have a pair of metatarsal boots now, brand-new low-cuts that I found at a yard sale for very little. The owner had won them in some kind of promotion and never used them. I confess I haven't worn them either. They aren't broken-in.
But if I ever need to go back into a steel mill for any reason, I am prepared to protect my feet. And that's what everyone should be every day in choosing how they are to be shod.