Bigger shoes. At least, that’s what this article said last week about Chicago women and their supposed larger-than-average feet. Apparently, a retail department store surveyed local women and discovered an overwhelming call for more double digit-sized shoes in stock. As a result, the store began showing the bigger-sized shoes on the sales floor and noted that women were buying multiple pairs — they’d finally found a shoe their size. And you can, too.
A local shoe retailer in Fremont, Michigan will celebrate its centennial mark this coming September, according to a local newspaper. Vredeveld Shoes opened September 9, 1909 and has been serving its community by selling shoes ever since. The current owner, Lon Vredeveld, is the great-grandson of the shoe store’s original owner — meaning the store has seen four generations at its helm. As a result, the store is filled with all kinds of shoe-related antiques — so many, in fact, Vredeveld plans to start a mini-museum on the second floor of the store. Like many other businesses though, Vredeveld Shoes has suffered at the hand of the economy, but Lon still sees hope in the future. “We’re not getting to 100 years and stopping,” he told the paper. And I must say, an 100 year-old independent shoe retailer is an impressive accomplishment. Now, if only shoes would last that long…
I read today that the Design Museum at the University of California, Davis is hosting a footwear exhibit. Is it just me, or does exploring the history, influence, and impact of shoes seem to be a growing trend? As one curator of a shoe museum in Toronto puts it, shoes are a “really interesting stepping stone into larger cultural issues.”
