Winter time in San Diego just means I have to wear socks with my Birkenstocks.
My favorite thing about Birks might be that they call a wide shoe "normal", "for normal, sturdy feet" (kind of funny because an arch as high as mine is not "sturdy," it needs support, and those silly foam arch supports you can buy to put in other shoes are a fucking joke if you have feet like mine.
Birkenstock calls what is normally a women's width (a B is a normal women's width) "narrow", "for slim, slender feet," which totally makes me giggle since some asshole shoe salesman told me he "might have some boxes in the back" that would fit me. The fucker, as if I hadn't endured enough torture finding shoes that fit a EE width with a high instep and arch and and a decidedly NOT wide heel. My swim coach used to call me "paddle-foot," nice if you are a duck, but humliating for a teenaged girl.
I wear a boys size and boys shoes are crap for women's feet. Eeek, women's shoes are crap for women's feet, which sort of helped me to give up on women's shoes, the painful, ridiculous things. I made the mistake as a young adult of buying a pair of women's work shoes that were too narrow and after 2 days they pinched a nerve and it took six months for the feeling to come back in two toes. When a shoe salesman says to me, "Oh, they'll stretch," they get a murderous look and a good talking to from me. They usually walk away, hanging their head in shame.
I bought my first pair of Birks 28 years ago, and I have one pair that is 13 years old and has been re-soled 3 times and I have 2 pairs that have had the footbed liner replaced. My other shoes haven't been outside their boxes in years.
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