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« 2006 UW C4C Auction | Main | More On Apple, Intel, & Windows » February 25, 2006Frickin' Laser Beams!
I have weird feet. Look, I'm not one to blame my parents for my genetic shortcomings (it's not really their fault, right?), but in my case a guy with big feet married a woman with narrow feet, and the DNA sequence that came out the other end - mine - was the unholy byproduct of those two factors. Hence, my feet are long and narrow (14 AA), with high arches. This sucks. It sucks because it's impossible to get nice, dressier (read: leather) shoes that fit right. (And please, don't write in and tell me you heard something about a guy who knows another guy who can get these kick-ass Italian whatevers for me that will fit like a glove. I've been down that rabbit warren about a million times, and I don't believe it anymore.) Typically, my shoe-buying scenario works like this: I walk in to the Men's Shoes department of some store (Kenneth Cole, Nordstrom's, whatever), and interact with a friendly salesguy who, very quickly, realizes that he likely has nothing that will fit me anywhere in his system. Longer shoes aren't narrow; narrow shoes aren't long. And so, after trying on a handful of near-misses (and vexing the poor salesguy with my Cinderella problem), I'm stuck with two possible outcomes: 1) a shoe that fits correctly, width-wise, but will murder my toes over the course of the day, or 2) a shoe that is comfortable length-wise, but that has so much room to either side of my foot that I feel like I could park a Volkswagen in the bloody thing. So, historically, I've worn sneakers. Gray New Balance 991's, baby. They fit. Since it's become obvious that my feet are too strange for the mass market, I have been on a quest to find a company that'll make custom shoes. This is not actually that easy to accomplish - I needed to find someone who is local, and can take my shoe measurements in person. (I'd once tried custom shoes by mail-order, where you measure yourself and take an outline of your foot, but the results just weren't good enough). There'd been rumors of someone in the Pike Place Market, but I never could find it - that shop might've well been in Diagon Alley for all the good it did me. And then, in June, I attended Chris Meyer's bachelor party in Vancouver. And as we strolled around Granville Island, we found ourselves, quite unexpectedly, in front the Ken Rice Shoe Studio. They not only do custom shoes ... they use a cool system from a company called Viavor to laser-scan your foot into a computer and then match it against a series of models, or lasts, in their system. If they find one that fits you, they can have the shoes made against that very-precise model. If not, they can do a custom last for a couple hundred bucks. I did some research on Viavor over the last couple of months, phoned Ken Rice to ask questions about this and that, and finally set an appointment for a custom scanning. And so, today, Elaine and I road-tripped up to Vancouver to get me scanned. The system is really cool, measuring each foot down to the millimeter and generating a 3D model of your foot that can be manipulated in the system. Once the scanning was complete, I selected a style of shoe I liked ("The Nelson"), color, type of sole, and so forth. They take about two months to make, and they'll drop-ship 'em to me here in Seattle. For the first time in a long time, I'm optimistic about my feet. If this works out, I'll be totally, totally, totally thrilled. Stay tuned. Posted by Gavin Shearer at February 25, 2006 10:53 PM. Posted to Misc. CommentsThat's mostly because good shoes are not something most men, these days, are accustomed to. You might want to pay a visit to John Lobb at 9 St. James's Street, in London. They're one of the best old-world shoe makers in the world, and one of the few who will custom fit a last - by hand - for you. Since their shoes don't need a fitting, you might be able to arrange to get it done in a trip, and then order more later. My guess is that as long as Church's (shop in NYC), Tricker's and Joseph Cheaney & Sons are in business, you'll be able to buy decent footwear. These are mostly European shoemakers, though I know Church's, at least, has a store in New York. You might also wish to try Allen Edmonds. I own a few pairs of their shoes, and I swear by them. Mine are all black Oxfords, for court, but every last pair of them are more comfortable than sneakers. Their website claims that they sell 14 AA shoes. Expect to spend around $350.00 per pair, though they'll probably last forever if you care for them properly. The only other maker I can think of who might accomodate your freaky feet would be Laszlo Vas (sp?) in Budapest, but I'm not aware of their reputation for shoes. Again, as with Tricker's and Josephy Cheaney & Sons, you might need to go to Europe. But there are surely worse fates in the world than that. :-) Let me know how the custom laser-fit shoes turn out. Posted by: tony In the future, you'll be able to get your custom shoes printed! See http://www.newscientist.com/channel/mech-tech/mg18925386.200.html Posted by: Kristen at March 13, 2006 10:55 AM Post a commentThanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out) (If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)« 2006 UW C4C Auction | Main | More On Apple, Intel, & Windows » |
