Shoes/Boots/Footwear
Serious Footwear
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Foot Pain
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Coffee Ridge
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Keen
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Zappos
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Mom
At a meeting when we started Coffee Ridge Hiking.com, the question was asked: who has the best walking shoes and hiking boots? What a can of worms that one opened up!
Soon, angry loud shouts of “Brand X, Brand Y, and Brand Z” went round and round the meeting room. This went on and on and on. It got kinda ugly!
Finally Tom (our chief field tester and consultant) restored order by thumping an old beat-up funny looking hiking shoe / boot on the table.
When things quieted down, Tom calmly said: “You’re all wrong – get the Keens”.
Then – it got ugly again. Really ugly. And personal.
Mean things were said like: “Keenes? You’re crazy; you’re full of it; Keens? Keens? I never heard of ‘em you old poop. And worst of all: ‘Keans? Aah, yer mother wears Keans haw haw haw’.
Now, we’re all passionate about fitness walking. Hiking. And our footwear. But this was ridiculous.
The minutes of the meeting read something like this:
Tom: Hey … let’s go hiking!
Brand X: Hiking?
Brand Y: Hiking?
Brand Z: Yeah, right you old poop.
Tom: Sure. Let’s go hiking. And you can personally field evaluate what’s on your feet. Agreed?
Brand X,Y & Z: Agreed.
Tom: And let’s be honest. Agreed?
X,Y & Z: Grumble, grumble agreed, you old ….
X: OK, where do we go hiking?
Tom: I know where.
Y: What do we evaluate?
Tom: Foot Pain.
Z: You old …
Now Tom is twice the age of many of us at Coffee Ridge. And older than dirt to some. But we can tell you, Tom is one walking, hiking, rock and hill climbing fool. He really knows how to cover some ground.
His test hike wasn’t particularly extreme or difficult. The pace unhurried. Slow to some. But the terrain was widely varied. Often tricky. And there was lots of it.
It was a good tough day hike.
And good for all-day, on your feet, shoe and boot evaluating.
Test Results. Try this.
After your next walk; evaluate your feet.
How do your feet feel?
Good. Tired. Sore. Downright painful. Screaming at you.
Tom rated his feet good/tired; only just a little sore. No problem.
X,Y and Z admitted very sore to screamin’.
And two others reported ‘good’ and ‘good tired’.
Tom’s shoes looked familiar: old beat up Keens!
‘Good’ and ‘Good Tired’ wore new hiking boots. Keens from Zappos. Purchased and delivered 48 hours after the ‘best shoes and boots’ meeting challenge. You see, we’d been on a Tom hike before.
And yes, our Mothers really do wear Keens! - CRH
