Mah new kicks.

Last night, I went shopping with my ma.

There were many reasons for our shopping trip – birthday presents, shower gift, graduation gift – but one of the main things I planned to buy was a new pair of running shoes.

Dudes.   I hate shopping for new running shoes.  But, since I’m now sort of half-assed running on a regular basis, it had become something I needed to do.

The last time I bought a new pair of sneaks was over a year ago.  They were New Balance cross-trainers, which I ended up with because I wanted them for both walking and Zumba class.  That shoe shopping expedition wasn’t the best experience of my life.  I went to the sports store in the Plateau shopping area in Hull, dealt with a salesman who spoke very limited English, had zero personality, and when I left, I wasn’t entirely sure I’d ended up with the pair of shoes I really wanted.

Jump ahead over a year, and those shoes have been put to great use, even though I wasn’t madly in love with them.  They’ve seen me through many a Zumba class, as well as carried me through twenty weeks of TurboFire.  They became my “indoor shoes”, though, so when I went walking, and now in the early stages of my jogging, I’ve been using an old pair of Skechers that I bought in Midland three years ago.

THREE YEARS AGO.

I’ve been told time and time again that someone who uses their athletic shoes regularly should be buying new ones at least every six months (if not, more often than that) because they break down quickly.

Those Skechers, and then the New Balance cross-trainers?  They’ve been WELL used.  I may not have been as active in the past as I am now, but I’ve always been a walker, and I’ve taken Zumba for over two years now.  And then, with twenty weeks of pouncing around doing the TurboFire workouts…

Well.  Let’s just say it was definitely time for new sneaks.

I was dreading that part of our trip, though. 

I knew I wanted a pair of shoes meant specifically for running.  I knew they had to have some good heel support, as my heelspurs have been getting worse since I started running.  And I knew I wanted them to be a rad colour, because it seems that everyone has cool, wild coloured footwear these days.

I was going back to the same store that I purchased that last pair of shoes, and I was prepping myself all day.  I googled the word “heel” in French in case the salesperson only spoke limited English.  I made  a mental list of all the things I wanted in my pair of shoes, and tried to practice saying it all in French in case I needed to parler.

I have to say that this time, I really lucked out.  It was a completely different experience from the last one.  Moments after approaching the wall of shoes at the back of the store, a young guy came over and asked me in French what I was looking for.  When I replied in English, he instantly switched too, and had no trouble communicating.  I explained that I had just started running in the past month, but that I have sore heels and I was looking for something with good heel support.  He asked me how my feet land when I run, and when I said I seem to land rather flat-footed, he instantly scanned the wall, reached up and grabbed a super-cool hot pink Nike shoe that was on sale – regularly $129.99, marked down to $99.99.

 They kinda look like this, except maybe even a hotter pink

He snagged a pair of 8.5’s from the back, I tried them on, and they felt like I was walking on pillows.  I loved them.  I could instantly feel how much better they were for my heels. Even my mom, who was at first very skeptical of the loud colour, agreed that they were pretty awesome.

In and out in less than 10 minutes.  Done deal.

When the girl at the cash rang them up, though, she said, “That’s $145.something” and it crossed my mind that holy crap, taxes sure make a pair of $99 shoes expensive.  But I handed over my debit card, she handed me back my shoes and my receipt, I jammed the slip in my wallet without looking at it, and off we went to our next stop.

I didn’t think about it again until I got home, and went out for a walk to break in the new kicks.  As I walked, the price of the shoes floated back across my mind… $145?  Doesn’t make sense… 15% of $99 shouldn’t take it up to $145…

When I got back in, I rummaged through my wallet for the receipt, and sure enough, discovered that they had charged me the regular price of the shoes instead of the sale price.

Son of a bitch.

When I told my mom about it this morning, she insisted that I have to take them back.  But I really don’t want to.  Sure, I was jipped $30, but to drive all the way back to Hull just to tell them that and possibly have them say, “Sorry, too late.” ?  Doesn’t sound like fun to me.  Ugh.

I guess you win some, you lose some.  Maybe having a much friendlier, accommodating, intelligible salesman was worth the extra $30.

I’d just really like to go buy shoes some time and not have an issue.  Ya know?

But hey.  I have pretty shoes.  And I’m gonna go super-fast now because of them.

Of course I am. ;)