Comfortable shoes

I knew that for my new job I would need a pair of shoes that I could stand up in for up to twelve hours at a time. I decided to buy New Balance sneakers, which are inexpensive, lightweight, comfortable, and American-made. I bought a pair when I began my dogwalks with Haley back in 2004, and actually still have them - though they're a bit worn after several hundred miles of walking, they're still fine for the back yard.

I went to a shoe store specializing in sneakers - where, for some reason, all the clerks wear flip-flops - a few days before work started. I started looking for New Balance sneakers on the women's side of the store, but quickly realized my mistake. I was a little puzzled to find that the first pair of New Balance sneakers I saw were 1) not particularly inexpensive and 2) not made in America. I think these were 651's. I found a pair of 659's next to them - even more expensive, but made in America. I paid the extra money to get them.

On my first rotation I realized that these shoes were not nearly as comfortable as I remembered my old pair, which I think are 657's. I bought two different types of innersoles to try to make them more comfortable: some double thickness pillow insoles, and a pair of Dr. Scholl's Work Insoles. I was a little concerned that the innersoles would interfere with the internal padding of the sneakers, but upon investigation I discovered that they really had very little internal padding at all!

I've got the pillow insoles in now, and I'm not crippled yet - we'll see if I'm walking like Fred Sanford again come Sunday and the end of my rotation.