Tag Archives: new balance

Crazy, Stupid Love and new shoes

Crazy stupid loveWatched this film the other night and, whilst it scored an ‘ok’ on my film-o-meter 9000 scale of movie goodness, it did make one specific lasting impression on me.

At one point, Steve Carrell’s character is sitting at a bar, nursing a drink, moping about his wife having left him. He gets pitied by a smooth-talking ‘player’ in the bar, who decides to help him improve his look and educates him in the ways of picking up women. The line that stuck in my memory was an exchange over what Steve was wearing:

“Are you Steve Jobs,” asks the Player.
“What?”
“Are you billionaire founder of Apple Computer, Steve Jobs?”
“No,…”
“Then why are you wearing New Balance trainers?”

Which at first struck me as elitist – I love New Balance trainers, they are my running shoe of choice. But then I looked at him, in his oversize suit and New Balance trainers, and realised… That’s what I must look like half the time.

So this weekend, we went suit and shoe shopping (as well as, more importantly and more successfully, shopping for Amanda). The Jones sale furnished me with a pair of ankle boots which I think are probably a reasonable upgrade over my previous best efforts for day-to-day footwear, but the hunt for the suit continues – thanks to the diet I am firmly between sizes at the moment.

Still, new shoes. Good start.

How to buy running shoes online

photo (2)My advice? Choose them offline. Which is what I did about 4 years ago, when I first discovered New Balance’s line of anti-pronating running shoes… then the 859, it’s since been “upgraded” to the 850, and after the hundreds of kilometers I ran last year I needed a new pair a mere 9 months after the last pair of 850s arrived.

Amanda made them a Christmas present to me, and they arrived a couple of days ago courtesy of an eBay shop, Running Outlet. Amazingly they sell the shoes at about 60% of the typical retail price, and as I know exactly what size, width and model I wanted it was bargainous.

I tried them out this morning – without breaking them in… but more on that shortly…