Dec/0915
Sad Robot Bureau: If the Shoe Fits
I seldom have an occasion where I need to wear a suit. It’s not because I don’t like how I look in a jacket and tie, I think I clean up rather well. But as a yet another under-employed twenty something in America, you’re more likely to see me in a t-shirt that’s twice as old as I am trying to tape booze to my hands than in any kind of formal wear.
Recently though, in an exception that proves the rule, I was invited to an event that required a suit. As I put it on I was filled with an overwhelming urge to pair it with my Chuck Taylor Converse All-Stars. A moment later I found myself asking why? Why do I so fervently feel the need to put on shoes that are a staple in the closets of 14 year old girls across the country?
The cliché that I was somehow trying to “express my individuality “can be thrown out immediately. Nearly all my friends own a pair and they have been one of the most popular styles for almost a century. In that time Chuck’s have meant different things to different people. When they came out they where pinnacle of sports technology, in the 70’s they were adopted by the punk scene and in the 90’s Kurt Cobain wore them in all his flannel and angst.
But what do they mean to me now? The theory I came up with is they no longer worn as a message to the world, but only to a few of us in it. They seem to say “I didn’t really fit in high school either”. In not so many words they stand for a kind of tongue in cheek irreverence and acceptance of one’s own geekdom. For an appreciation of British comedy, for public radio, for an addiction of the series of tubes that is the internet ,for the search for new music and an understanding that a Miley Cyrus single only sounds good when its mashed up with hardcore gansta rap. For everything that made us different as a kid, that are now the things we’re most proud of. Essentially, for all the things that this whole site is about.
This message to our inner dorks is even more pronounced when worn with a suit, the uniform we associate with the work our generation spends most of its energy trying to avoid. You might say that Chuck Taylor’s are as much a uniform as anything else, but those of us who wear them understand it. and I guess that the whole point after all.
Michael Winand
December 3rd, 2009
1. Finally, a decent justification for poor arch support.
2. “Party in the USA,” by the aforementioned Cyrus, is perhaps one of the best pop songs I’ve ever heard. It needs NO gangsta rap. It stands on its own.
December 3rd, 2009
so what does it mean if we start wearing vibram five fingers with our suits?
December 3rd, 2009
Hahaha, I’ve never seen Vibram Five Fingers till now, but that would be quite a site paired with a suit. Do those serve any purpose? For those of you who haven’t seen them before, here ya go: http://bit.ly/6yC2It
December 3rd, 2009
1. Miley Cyrus never sounds great no matter how much of anyone else’s music you put in it.
2. Michael Mac it deeply saddens me if that is a real comment. “Nodding my head like yea, moving my hips like yea.” Classic lyrics.
3. Ha yea, Kevin Rose wore those once on Diggnation they are supposed to be good for walking or something. He said he really liked them, but they make your legs and feet sore by the end of the day.
December 3rd, 2009
I don’t have any clever things to say except that my cousin wore converse shoes with his tux at his wedding reception. I think it looked quite sharp.
December 3rd, 2009
Well give it a listen and you will all see That I am entirely right.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsoYTyJSttA
December 3rd, 2009
that michael mac fella is right about that poor arch support. ya know what kind of shoes offer better arch support? pf flyers. which you dont seem to believe in for some reason. please write an entry about those and the inner cooldom they reflect.
i also second his comment about miley. the song, her “kicks”, that american flag, and her push-up bra all stand on their own without biggie’s help thank you
December 3rd, 2009
i do like this though, i wish i could give you e-props in response, like on xanga!
December 4th, 2009
The question is do you think the B.I.G. song is better this way, or that adding them together makes her song half way listenable.
December 4th, 2009
Michael….now that I know you’re not kidding about Party in the USA, I don’t know if we can be friends anymore.
December 4th, 2009
If any of you check back here and don’t want to be alien heads anymore. go to Gravatar.com and sign up for an account. all you do is put in your email address, name and picture and then any site that uses gravatar will use that picture of you, or picture of whatever you put up there, like a shoe, or your favorite kind of staple. I hope our spam blocker doesn’t block this.
December 7th, 2009
Mike, I don’t have words to describe the rage I’m feeling towards you right now.
December 8th, 2009
ALoStuios, you know what I do when I’m feeling rage? I start “nodding my head like yea, moving my hips like yea.”
December 9th, 2009
One more comment and Michael Mac has more then you. Oh now make that two.
August 1st, 2010
spam blockers are really needed these days because you will always get spam from e-mails and on your facebook account too.,*: