Day 268: The Shoe Coffin

For some years I've had a large box full of old shoes. The box itself originally contained the full aftermarket exhaust system I bought for my WRX, which is 3 cars ago now. Belinda named it the shoe coffin due to its size and it has been one of her pet hates from the time I decided to re-purpose the box for storing my old shoes.

Tonight, we dragged the box out and opened it up. It was a bit like opening a time capsule, I found things I'd completely forgotten about like an old pair of snow boarding boots, my old sprinting spikes and some hotel slippers that found their way into my suitcase prior to checkout.

Of all the pairs of shoes, thongs, boots and slippers in there I only salvaged 3 pairs. The rest really weren't worth keeping. Now I need to get around to disposing of both the enormous box and its remaining contents...

Day 12: Out with the old and in with the new

I've been riding the bike to work all week due to some ongoing car issues and rather than wearing my full length race boots for the week I dug out my old ankle high bike shoes. They're about 8 years old and are very comfy... but the old shoes haven't aged well. 

Today on my way back to the office from visiting a customer I pulled in to one of the local bike shops to see what they had in the way of replacements and I found these little gems. 

You're looking at the stainless steel 'laces' that are fastened with a little dial that drives a ratchet mechanism at the back of the boot. There are a couple of benefits to this design over my old traditional lace ups:

1. Laces can get caught on things like foot pegs & gear levers - not ideal when trying to put your foot down at the lights.

2. Laces can come undone.

3. Stainless steel doesn't stretch when it gets wet like laces can.

4. Tying laces is hard and this simple dial fastening design makes life much easier for motorcyclists who aren't renowned for their intelligence.

So it's out with the old bike shoes and in with the new as well as out with the old shoelace technology and in with the new Stainless Steel 'closure system'.