By Carly Mallenbaum for USA Today
Remember when we wore high heels?
My stilettos and I had a rapport going for years. I’d retire them only when the rubber bottom started to show the metal rod inside. I’d put them on for red carpet work events and place them in a T shape the way I saw celebrities do, as a way of ensuring I achieved my most glamorous potential. I kept them on during weddings, Bar Mitzvahs and after-parties because I wasn’t about to ditch my beloved feminine footwear for some cheap flip flops even if my arches ached. After all of the lifting and toning heels did for my butt and legs, I couldn’t toss them aside.
But apparently, I can keep them stored in my closet for five months as a deadly virus rages across the world.
To my surprise, I don’t miss them.
Which got me thinking, even when this is all over, will I ever put my heels back on? Will any of us?
“I don’t think I’ll ever wear high heels again,” she told the New York Times in a recent interview.
What is she wearing during the coronavirus age? She recently bought clogs.
Personally, I’ve stuck with four categories of footwear for months: Velcro sandals; fuzzy socks (when you’re at home all day, socks become their own form of footwear); sneakers (I bought a new pair in March because running was my main form of exercise); and hiking shoes (purchased in June for a national park road trip).
Nationally, consumers are following similar patterns. According to NPD Group footwear and accessories analyst Beth Goldstein, slipper sales doubled in the past year, with slides – Crocs, specifically – remaining popular.
Sales of dress shoes, meanwhile, plummeted 70% from March through May compared with the same time in 2019, when the category was already down 12%. Read more from USA Today.
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