Gentle reader,
Being home sick with a cold today, I'm taking a break from showing you my digital garage in FORZA 4.
If you have seen the Robin Williams' movie, JACK, you have seen the elementary school he and I went to. Yes, at the same time, no I did not know him. Being I was a lowly 3rd grader and he was in the 8th grade. Still, the stage is set.
My best-good-friend and next door neighbor was named Davie. His dad, was unusual for the 1960's, being a jogger. He wore really cool shoes to do so, they had racing stripes!
Yes, they were Adidas. I don't remember what style, but I knew I wanted some. The town was and is called, Ross, California and it is to this day, by per capita income, wealthy. We were not so blessed. We lived on the VERY edge of town. In fact, our side of the street was Ross, across the street was San Anselmo. During that time, Van Morrison wrote a song called, Snow in San Anselmo. Because it did in fact snow one time there. But I digress.
I have one Aunt and she adores me and I her. Mom must have mentioned to her my desire to have a pair of Adidas, because she came by one time and gave me $20.00! That was a fortune to a kid in the mid-1960's. Davie and I walked downtown to the store his dad bought his Adidas from and after much thought, I chose a pair of white with blue striped models called: ROM. They were made for indoor soccer playing. I'd never heard of soccer, but in a couple years, I'd be in a summer program learning to play. This in itself was VERY odd as our parents discouraged the five of us from interest in ANY sports.
Well, being that Ross Elementary school was filled with the VAST majority being wealthy, when other kids saw my Adidas, they all wanted to know where to get some. And they did. Yep, it was ALL me! I may have a photo of me somewhere in those ROMs, but I don't know. I thought those were the ONLY pair I'd ever had, but I came across this photo of me at 18 working on my first (and only) hot rod. My brother, Jim took the photo with Dad's Argus C3, (AKA: The Brick) camera.
At that time in life, I was experimenting with parting my hair in the middle, so don't laugh. Look at that muscle definition! Man, I miss that body. And that full head of hair. But, as you can clearly seem I AM wearing a pair of Adidas and they look like ROMs possibly with blue stripes.
I don't know about THAT pair, but my first pair were made in Yugoslavia of kangaroo skin of all things. Weird, huh? Adi Dassler, a German started the company prior to WWII and restarted it afterwards. I haven't been able to find an exact timeline for the shoes, so can't say when ROMs came out, but if you look on ebay, you'll find Yugoslavian made ones which people want LOTS of money for.
Having married the love of my life the day before the Blizzard of '96, sometime after that, we were in a thrift store and I was on the floor looking through LP records that they kept in milk crates. One of the crates was sticking out and would not go back. To my surprise, I found an Adidas shoe behind it. In my size. In new condition. OK, now I'm on a quest, where is it's mate. After much searching, I found it! They were vintage SAMBAs in green suede with white stripes.
Those SAMBAs, it turns out were very rare. Of course I didn't know that until years later when a guy stopped us one day to ask where I got them. He said he was a huge soccer fan and had never seen SAMBAs like them, especially because they had ROM soles. Who knew?
TO THE PRESENT: A few years ago, I convinced my wife to buy me a pair of PILOTI driving shoes. Italian made and at $65.00, the most she'd ever spent on a pair of shoes. Me too.
You will see them at the very bottom of the page. Worn OUT and faded from the nice Italian red they once were.
Somehow, I decided to start collecting, A: Adidas, and 2: Driving shoes. Ebay, as you know is the world's flea market. Bargains for the taking. Over time, I bought pair after pair. I used to keep them on two shelves in my dresser/amiore. Did I spell that right? Well, I soon needed more room. My closet floor is mostly taken up with a trunk with my off season clothes in it. Not much room for shoes. So, recently on ebay, I found a nice ten tier shoe rack "to hold up to 30 pairs". Maybe KID shoes, but not size twelve men's! And here it is:
Yes, my friend, that IS 20 pairs of shoes. But I actually have three more pairs and three pairs of boots.
So, you may be thinking, "What the heck are 'driving shoes'?" In car racing (not NASCAR) cars with clutch pedals can be driven faster by "heel-and-toe" method. Google it. Anyway, like you feet's heels, driving shoes have rounded rear soles and the tread travels up the back or the shoe so one has traction swiveling their feet. You'll see.
FIRST, a caveat: These shoes have ALL been worn. And frankly, since I apparently never look at the SOLES of my shoes, I was surprised to see some caked with mud and/or grass. So, there you have it. Try not to look away if you see this. They ARE shoes. Shoes are made to be worn. On the ground. Which is made of dirt and other stuff if MAN hasn't covered it over.
The first pair, is the very FIRST genuine FERRARI item I've ever had. Got them for a bargain price because they are white. Most Ferrari stuff is red. They are also they only PUMA brand shoes in the bunch.
Note, as mentioned above, the rounded-up heels. See how grippy they look? To prevent a driver/racer's heels from sliding on the car's floor, which is race cars are not carpeted.
Next, again a first for me, something from PORSCHE DESIGN. Same family, no business relation to the automobile company. I have owned a Porsche. It's featured in a blog some years ago.
The script, font if you will, is the same as the cars use, however. The are hired by many companies to design things. Plus they sell their own stuff too. Not cheap. The heels are not as high or as aggressive as the Ferrari's are.
I have two pairs of official GOODYEAR/ADIDAS driving shoes. The first, below are white. The others seen well below are brown leather and suede. I did not shoot the soles of these, but did the brown ones. GOODYEAR designed and made the soles for Adidas.
The soles are two or three colors and wrap up on the heel but are not ridged in any way. Note the loops above and around the symbol above to help pull them on.
Next, the latest Adidas to the collection, I finally have a pair of white ones with blue stripes. These, sans the stripes, I'd call Keds, by their design. Deck shoes, maybe? KIEL is their name. Canvas they are made of.
Next, the most COLORFUL shoes that I have ever had! They are, wait for it, POLO by Ralph Lauren. La-di-da. I got them for a great price and they are very light and SO comfortable!
That little white patch is the POLO symbol.
Check out those soles! The ball of the foot is in red and made to grip the pedals. The remainder has all those Lego-like dots. Pretty cool, huh?
Next, the first pair of ROMs to be featured. Probably closest to the ones from fifty-or-so-years-ago.
See the heels? NOT driving shoes. Aggressive soles for indoor soccer of just plain running.
As you can see, I haven't worn them too often. Next, a similar, yet different pair: These are SAMOAs. Similar too, but not the same as SAMBAs as you will see.
Nonetheless, they look like they are made to kick a ball. Soccer, anyone?
And yes, I do have an "ankle roll" with my right foot. I didn't know that until recently. Well, maybe I did, I just didn't know it had a name.
Next, another pair of ROMs. Grey (or is it gray?) stripes on white.
Next, it is a toss up which were more expensive when new, the Ferrari Pumas or these GEOX pair:
Definitely driving shoes. Below is the first dirty soles so far. Got their name all over them, don't they? Light and airy and slip-on too.
Next, another first for me. My first pair of REEBOKs. Almost as old a company as Adidas. A co-worker saw them and went, "Ooh, Pumas!" I wonder about him. But he was mistaken. Similar stripe pattern, though. Elvis would be proud, they are: BLUE SUEDE SHOES.
Very comfortable and racy looking too. They are closer to the blue above in reality than they appear in the following photos.
Nice grippy soles that go way up in back. Note the reinforced blue oval where the foot connects with the pedals.
Next, my third set of ROMs. Bark blue with red stripes.
Next, the first of my SAMBAs. Now, remember the green suede ones I had fifteen-or-so-years-ago, had ROM soles. These do not. But they were classics when I bought them. Red leather with white stripes. The tongues are longer and stick up some when worn.
Note, no Adidas symbol on the upper heels. Interesting tread pattern, but not nearly as aggressive.
Next, a newer pair of SAMBAs in black with white stripes. I've worn them quite alot. Well, black goes with anything, right?
The tall tongues are more obvious on these.
Next, the second pair of blue suede. They are SPEZIAL models. Not sure what makes them special.
Another unique tread pattern on their soles. The next pair, my wife bought for me. They are 13s, so larger than the rest. She thought my original ones were blue with white. Very loving and thoughtful of her to get them for me. They are AMERICANA models and have white soles too.
Next the second pair of GOODYEAR models. As I said above, they are brown suede and leather. You'll see the multicolor soles.
The following are all SKECHERS. All are made with a driving shoes style soles. The first ones are the newest. They looked black in the store's lighting, but may be dark brown. The stripes certainly are.
Interesting tread pattern, don't you agree? The bumps are what carry my weight.
Next, my first pair of Skechers. I bought them because the store didn't have the style that caught my eye in my size. So they are consolidation shoes. As you can see, I have walked in some messy stuff in them as they are my all-weather shoes.
Starting to wear, that's for sure. Below ARE the ones that I wanted. Once again, ebay to the rescue. A combination of boat shoes, loafers and driving shoes. I am disappointed that the color has worn off so easily.
Note how the suede portion is coming unstitched on the right shoe (left side of photo)? I think leather glue should fix that.
Check out these soles! I tried not to wear them if is was going to rain as the suede wraps around the bottom of the shoe. But sometimes it rained anyway. Note also the variety of materials and colors. On the soles!
I was mistaken in writing that all that followed are Skechers. For the ones below are FLORSHEIMs. I bought them on-line via Guide Gear. Driving loafers or perhaps moccasins.
These especially surprised me to find the soles so dirty! Nice, grippy soles and way up the back of the heels.
Lastly, the ones that started the collection. Well, at least the driving shoe collection. PILOTI is Italian for pilot which is what they call race car drivers. The soles became so smooth that I stopped wearing them outside. I use them exclusively to "race" on the XBox 360. I have a set of Microsoft's steering wheel and pedals set. The pedals have raised circles like racing pedals, but in real pedals they are rubber. These are all plastic and have worn a hole in the left one because I left-foot-brake when virtual racing.
I tried to restore some of the redness to them in Photoshop.
They are quite a bit thicker and wider than the rest. So, fitting them in my car's footwell can be a challenge. But not anymore, as I said.
Did I tell you they are worn? Got the money's worth out of them. I remembered that I forgot to shoot the sole of the left one until after disassembling the studio. Thus the photo below was shot handheld and is thus a little blurry.
That's it. The entire collection. So, am I a shoe-whore? Maybe, but I never paid full price!
Thanks for looking,
Scott
