i used to not like wearing sneakers or rubber shoes in my youth. when i used to run athletically in grade school, i ran barefoot as i ran much faster than when weighed down by heavy rubber shoes. plus my feet were too small (at the time) for any proper sneakers to fit. in high school, when i played sports, my friends would lend me theirs. when i got older, i wore ballet shoes when working out in the gym, but invested in a pair of adidas for jogging.
i loved wearing three- or four-inch heels as i grew older. rain or shine, flood or mud, heels it were for me. so that when i came to canada and started working, i was appalled to see women, in expensive suits and clothes wearing those bulky sneakers coming to and going from the work. then i understood that such was the rush and stress of commuting, the importance of getting to that one train or miss it to wait for the next train. a couple of years later, i had a craft business and a lady ordered a slew of coordinately-designed give-aways and other stuff for her wedding reception. she's so averse to wearing heeled shoes and was bracing herself for a night of painful suffering when she would rather wore rubber shoes. i had a pair of white keds shoes and suggested that she bought a pair and i would glue on some appliqués and spray it with white metallic paint and that's what she would wear for the reception party. i used the same design of appliqué i used on the giveaways, guest book, wedding well, etc. charged her a fat $700 for everything, which in 1993 was more than half of my bi-weekly salary. i also decorated my own keds sneakers and displayed it in my booth at the crafters marketplace, got quite a lot of orders. months later, i saw in one of the craft magazines the very idea had caught on at weddings.
i got three pairs of this sneakers, moss green and slate grey were the other two. just so i could wear them at the office wearing my office attire, i painted the sole/midsole with like colours. of course it helped that i dabble at painting and thus have quite a few paint to work with.
It is always interesting to hear the bits of your life that you share with us through your photos, Vikki.