Shoes that are comfortable but are not sneakers cost about $400 but DAMN are they worth it if you have to wear shoes. In men’s fashion in general, uncomfortable imitations of elite clothes are favored by the North Eastern middle class, who don’t realize that by spending 5x as much they wouldn’t be so miserable, and don’t have the confidence of the Western middle class to rebel and wear sneakers.
There’s an implied, but not necessary contradiction there. Maybe the middle class doesn’t shell out for expensive shoes because they’ve tried and gotten uncomfortable ones. Or maybe it’s easy to find comfortable shoes, so long as they aren’t Italian. But that leaves the question of what’s wrong with the Italian ones.
Shoes that are comfortable but are not sneakers cost about $400 but DAMN are they worth it if you have to wear shoes. In men’s fashion in general, uncomfortable imitations of elite clothes are favored by the North Eastern middle class, who don’t realize that by spending 5x as much they wouldn’t be so miserable, and don’t have the confidence of the Western middle class to rebel and wear sneakers.
There’s an implied, but not necessary contradiction there. Maybe the middle class doesn’t shell out for expensive shoes because they’ve tried and gotten uncomfortable ones. Or maybe it’s easy to find comfortable shoes, so long as they aren’t Italian. But that leaves the question of what’s wrong with the Italian ones.