Kicking off Odd’s first shoe review. Thank you to everyone who submitted shoes for review, and of course thank you to all our shoependous reviewers. Please feel free to add your opinions to the reviews in the comment section and we will enter you in our Zappo’s gift card drawing. The drawings will take place after all the shoes have been reviewed. (Note: The value of the gift cards will be small but still better than an ingrown toenail. Cut straight across, guys.) The only rule for the shoe review was that participants were requested to submit a pair of shoes that they wear most often.

 Isabel:

Motorcycle boots for that summertime ride
Leather for safety
Buckles for bling
Let’s Cruz the streets
While we laugh and sing
You can’t help but smile when you wear these brown beauty’s
Don’t forget your helmet it’s part of your duties 🙂

Review by: Mary Jane

Square toe, low heel, well worn. These boots reflect a person who is low maintenance, not afraid to get dirty or a little scuffed up if it promotes the greater good. This person may be able to enjoy a five-star hotel and fine wine, but they can be equally happy camping in the woods and drinking an ice cold beer. Kicking up those low-heeled boots is one way this fun-lover chooses to have a great time no matter where they go.

Review by: Chelsea Fry

Howdy!” I don’t know what else to say to someone wearing these boots. “Yo!” is quite simply anachronistic (though come to think of it, these boots are, too). There is a level of unpretentiousness here, a level of not caring what year it is…wait, is it the 70s? No it can’t be because we didn’t have internet! But looking at this pair of Frye boots (ok are they actually Frye? Who even cares? Surely not this unpretentious dresser) sure does put me in a 70s mood. I want to crank up the volume on my 8-track tape player because I love the Guess Who so damn much! This is a go-anywhere, even if it’s 2013, kind of boot. Because we are cool and evolved, we can wear a boot like this with a dress in this day and age; we don’t care how long boys’ hair is or whether girls wear a motorcycle boot with a skirt. Whether these are vintage or new, my suggestion, and I imagine the philosophy of the wearer, is to put them on and don’t take them off until it’s flip-flop weather.

Good To Know: In Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries heels on shoes were always colored red.

★~ Hawk: 

Doc Martin boots a perfect choice for a guy,
Your looking confused, like your wondering why?
Let me explain, let me tell you a tale,
These boots will never let you down, they’ll never fail.
These boots will farm acres in snow storms and sleet,
They’ll serve you well while protecting your feet.

Review by: Schiff Seeshaptu

This shoe has been worn. And I say that with the deepest respect and reverence for the wearer and the history of Doc Martens. A British steel-toed work shoe that became iconic (fight me on this one if you wish) when Pete Townsend wore it onstage in the 60s, was seized by punk rockers in the 70s, and now worn by, well, my daughter, a sweet and innocent (fight me on that one too if you wish) urban trend-wearer. She, however, will never do justice to her floral not-steel-toed Docs with peach-colored ribbon laces like this guy did. This is what they were meant to look like. This guy kicked ass. Or perhaps walked the city streets or rode his motorcycle or…wait no, here is what he did: washed the windows of skyscrapers, fearlessly towering above the city. These boots are so stone cold cool that a guy could even get respect when wearing them with a skirt.

Review by: A’ala Schuh

The yellow stitching makes me think we have another pair of Docs on our hands. However these shoes stand apart. These shoes are the picture of being ridden hard. I can only hope that the wearer has had them for at least a decade and has worn them when he worked on a bucket brigade in the Amazon, and at the birth of each of his children. I envision him wearing them to shoot some hoops with his kids and hiking the Appalachian Trail. I will be crushed if I find out he is a mortgage broker who works M-F, 9-5. I will have lost all of my faith that I can judge a person by their clothing. so, wearer of these awesome boots, tell me . . . that you wore them while dancing sky-clad around a bonfire deep in the woods.

Review by: Telly Shoevalas: 

Now these shoes speak to me.  Actually they scream to me.  They say, “I am one cool cat.”  This person is confident and wants to show it.  Seems like a fireman might wear these shoes to run in to a burning building and save someone’s cat.  At the same time you might wear these and just be going to the store for milk.   A word of caution, no one who wants to pass as “normal”, whatever that is, would wear these shoes. It’s more likely that this person celebrates their separation from that crowd.  Doesn’t ever march but if you did it wouldn’t be to a drum, maybe a tambourine.  Rock on, my friend, I dig these shoes.

Good To Know: It takes 2.5 square feet of leather to make a pair of Doc Marten boots.

★~ Irene: 

You look at these shoes and you think of a run.
They belong to a person who’s up before the sun.
A person who is undoubtedly fleet of foot.
A person who would rather run, than cook!
Someone who enjoy’s a good jog,
Either alone or with her red dog.

Review by Penny Loafer:

Ah, athletic shoes. The novice might assume these are the shoes of an athlete and it’s possible they could be correct, but I don’t think so. I, being a true shoe aficionado, am of the opinion these are the shoes of a person with things to do, people to see and places to go. A real mover and shaker, if you will.

The wearer of these shoes is not afraid to get their hands and feet dirty. They usually have more balls in the air than Enrico Rastelli and though they might drop one every now and then they know how to pick themselves up, dust themselves off and keep on moving. Their motto is “keep up or get out of the way”, yet they have the heart and soles of a gentle spirit spending time in these shoes to walk and reflect, usually with a dog or two in tow.

This person is creative with a big imagination and a love of laughter. They are amused by silliness and aren’t afraid to act silly themselves, sometimes bordering on the absurd. Their integrity and loyalty are beyond reproach. They are outgoing and open-minded, which has filled their life with many wonderful, diverse and unusual characters all of whom they call friend.

In summary, these are the shoes of a person I would like to know, provided I could get them to be still long enough to say hello.

Want to know more about Penny Loafer? Click over and say HI on her blog: Tangled in Kudzu – Musings of a Southern Momma

Review by: Lorena Languorous:

I have a very strange love/hate relationship with running shoes. I look at them with awe and inspiration at what I could achieve in those shoes. That’s the love part. After I buy the shoes they languish in my closet, because, well c’mon, who am I kidding? I am not, nor will I ever be, a runner. It seems obvious that the owner of these shoes is a runner. You can tell by looking at the casual, devil-may-care attitude of the laces. I can hear them screaming at me through the picture. “Get off the couch!” I’m sure the owner of these shoes does get off the couch. She runs, she jumps, she probably flies. Anything is possible for this gal, and the best part is that she knows it.

Review by: Agent Shoelock:

I learned this person use to be a marathon runner (sorry can’t divulge my source–classified). Stopped running?  What happened?  I’ll tell you what happened, she finally turned state’s evidence.  She’s living under the protection of the federal government under a new identity. I don’t want to blow your cover, but this is so obvious!  Loves sport, and just couldn’t stay away from the track, could you?  Before you knew it you were in too deep, in a bad place with some worse people.  That’s when you started running.  And now you’re getting comfortable.  You’ve settled in and established trust over the last twenty or so years just waiting to make your move.  Well alright Mugsy, if that is your real name, the gig is up.  And I’m out!

Did You Know: The average exercise life of a running shoe is about 400 miles.

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This concludes our First Shoe Review.Thank you Isabel, Hawk and Irene for submitting your shoes for review, and a big shout out to our shoetacluar reviewers. Don’t forget to leave your review comments for a chance to be included in our drawing for a Zappos gift card. I bet you are a shoe in! Odd will be back with more shoes in review!!

See you later alligators….(who will be the first to rely appropriately???)

Odd Loves Company!