My Shoes = My Skills?

(pssst... for the 2 of you that tagged me, these shoes and their stories count as the things about me...)

These are my favorite shoes, 2 years old, falling apart, but still good enough for gardening this summer.
They are a pale metallic gold, more shimmery when I first got them. I used to wear thin soled gold ballet style flats regularly through late college and grad school. (Gold shoes are just fine for girly jewelry art students.) Then in Wisconsin, I grew out of that habit, perhaps due to the need for more sturdy winter shoes. Two years ago I felt the need for a little more flash underfoot and got myself another pair. I wore them to the feed store once to pick up a few supples. Feed store guy asked me, snickering, if I was going to wear those to plant my trees. And you thought men didn't notice shoes....

Thinking I might be satisfied with more glitz, I also got this pair, in silver metallic with a pink rose.

I do like them, but they don't hold the same subtle magic. They are more quickly turning into a general walking and yard shoe. They've got another year or so left in them.

These are the shoes I got married in ten years ago, still my only pair of light colored dress shoes. They need a little cleaning, but would still work if I ever had occasion to dress up, in cream or light colored clothes.

These are my dark colored dress shoes that I thought I needed this past winter. Well I've only worn them once. That tells you how often I need to dress up. I only like Mary Janes for a dressy shoe.

These are my blue suede shoes, also maryjanes. Everyone should have a pair of blue suede shoes. I almost never wear these, but am saving them for when my gold shoes fall apart.

I do love a thin soled shoe for wandering around the yard or road. I can feel the earth beneath them.

Now if I tried to wear any of those shoes to work, even to a client meeting in a nice finished space, I would lose my credibility as a blacksmith. People look at my shoes and then look up. If the shoes aren't solid sensible workstyle shoes, they give a little half smile and don't say a word. If the shoes look like business or work shoes, then we've already established a base of credibility. If I wear the wrong shoes one time, and the right shoes the next time, I might get a comment like "at least you're wearing the right shoes today." Really, men in the construction field say such things, even if you are meeting at an office, where work shoes are not necessary.

So I have 2 pairs of work shoes. First, I have the ultra sensible, comfortable black work shoe, mens dress loafers from Kmart.

Nobody questions my black mens loafers. This is a real business shoe, at an office or at a fairly clean jobsite. Kmart has the most comfortable shoes I've ever worn, those Thom McCann shoes. The soles are fantastic and the shoes last forever. The womens shoes are a little too prissy and tight-toed. The mens fit just right.
My last pair were brown and were still going strong after two years. I finally threw them away after some child threw up on them. I couldn't stand the thought of scraping off the dried vomit. So I got the manly black loafers and hope they last me at least another 2 years. When I wear these shoes, I keep my credibility as a blacksmith, even though they don't have steel toes.

Now, in the workshop, or on a hardcore worksite, I wear my steel toe shoes. Yes, construction contractors look at my feet first. If I'm not wearing steel toe shoes, I may as well start giggling and jiggling. Nobody will take me seriously.

I used to buy mens steel-toe shoes, but believe it or not, there are a lot of good fitting womens steel-toe shoes on the market now. I get mine on Zappos, but Farm & Fleet and Walmart also have them. I like the Skechers version. The leather is a little wimpy, but the construction is overall solid and the sole is more comfortable than the Work'n'Sport brand that I used to get.

So there you have it, my credibility, my persona, the basic analysis of my Self, starts at my shoes.