These Shoes Weren’t Made for Walking

I have very odd feet. They’re not only big, but very wide as well. This makes it very hard to find shoes for special occasions, as most dress shoes do not come in my size, 10.5 EE. When I have a fancy dress type occasion I usually start searching for acceptable shoes weeks in advance, knowing that my search might be fruitless.

In my city, there are two shoes stores that serve the Sasquatch-sized womens foot. One is fairly far from my home and difficult to get to, the other is nearer by, but so ridiculously overpriced that it’s just not feasable to purchase shoes there that I might only wear a few times. However, when I need shoes, I do check both stores to see the options.

Most of the shoes made for dress occasions in my size are UGLY. There’s no other way to describe them. They are old lady shoes, with thick chunky heels and little to no style. You get pumps with stacked heels, pumps with covered heels, pumps with short heels, but nothing with style. With umph. With fashion flair. Usually they come in a few boring colors like black, navy, red, and brown. What a treat, eh?

So I take to the online shoe sites to try and find shoes that I won’t be embarassed to wear. Lately I looked at Zappos, which hardly ever has anything in my size, and what they do… ugh. I tried some of the lesser sites like shoes.com with similar results. I was starting to panic, knowing that my event was this weekend and I was likely to go barefoot for lack of shoes.

A friend told me to look at Sillhouettes, a large sized women’s clothing catalog that also carried shoes. I checked out the online catalog and found a pair of shoes I didn’t hate. I didn’t love them, but I was willing to wear them, which is saying something.

I ordered them on a Friday, and they arrived the following Wednesday so I have no complaints regarding the shipping. They were well packaged, with the shoes inside a shoe box, and then double packed inside another carton. They also came with a catalog and a coupon for $10 off the next order.

I tried the shoes on, and there is no way they were a EE width. They were way too narrow. I tried to stretch them out, and I also worked on keeping my swollen with edema feet down to a normal size. That usually allows shoes that are initially tight to fit much better.

Today was the event, and I wore the shoes. They were still very tight, even with stockings. As the day went on, they become agonizingly painful. I could barely stand in them because there were so tight that they were cutting off my circulation. Although they looked nice, there was no way that these shoes were even close to a wide width. My daughter tried them on and she’s got a narrow foot, and thought they were a normal width across the instep, where they hurt the most. A friend also tried them and said the same thing. The shoes were labeled EE, but they just weren’t.

I’m sending them back on Monday. This is the first (and last) time I’ve ever bought shoes online. Maybe online shipping works for those with normal sized tootsies, but when you’ve got gigantic feet like mine, not only do you have to pay much more for shoes, but you really need to try them on before you cough up the dough to pay for them.

Update: They charge both ways for shipping. The shipping costs are almost half of what the shoes cost. I am so not pleased with this company. Never again, peeps. Never again.