Bemoaning Big Boots

I have just one pair of knee high boots that I adore (in fact they’re my only pair of boots). I bought them four years ago; I wasn’t looking for a pair of boots, just merely stumbled upon them. I would pass this shoe store on the way to work and would do the Walk and Stare. (You know, when you see something beautiful in a store window and your eyes lock onto it and you can’t look away as you’re walking past it, so you bend your head as far back as it can go before you finally have to snap your head forward again.) I passed these boots many times until I couldn’t resist it any longer and finally went into the store. I was almost afraid to see the boots up close because I thought for sure that they would be outlandishly expensive…but they weren’t. I tried them on and instantly knew that I had to have them.

Had I known then how hard it was to find a pair of boots I love, I would have stocked up. Yet I was naive; I didn’t realize my luck at the time. I’ve worn my beloved boots over the years and taken good care of them, and while they still look great, they’ve become no longer waterproof. This is a major problem. I can only wear them on dry days, and most of the cold months in Oregon are also rainy ones. So it sucks. I still wear them, but I can’t wear them as much as I would like.

Thus, I’ve been on the lookout for new boots for the last couple of years but I’ve had so many disappointments. Often the cute boots I see online don’t match my expectations when I see them in the store. The leather doesn’t feel that great or looks cheap. Last year the pair of boots I had high hopes for disappointed me with a two inch wide strip of elastic that ran down the entire height of the boot, which was incredibly ugly and cheapened the entire boot. Lately my biggest problem is that the boots are meant for those with wider legs.

I realize that shoe companies are trying to reach the broadest audience possible by having wider fitting boots so that they can sell more, but I’m struggling to find a pair of boots that I want and will fit me. It’s frustrating because I don’t think I’m terribly thin, I’m rather average in size. (I guess I’m on the thinner size in the U.S.—but that’s not saying much; if I were in Asia I would be on the larger size and could probably stand to lose a few kilos). But it seems like more often than not, when I try on a pair of boots, I look like a child in her mother’s shoes…it looks terrible.

It just seems like there should be different options for the leg widths of knee high boots. I’m sure it’s not as cost effective to have more than one leg width of boot for a single boot style, but one size is not going to fit all. There’s different shoes sizes for the actual foot, what about for the leg part? Because I don’t want my legs to be swimming in a pair of boots; and I’m not going to buy a pair a boots that aren’t going to fit me properly.