oly guacamole! Would you look at the calendar! Has it really been ten years since a friend took a look at my collection of digital photos of shoes I would sorely love to own and suggested I had the ingredients for a blog. So I sat down toward the end of summer in 2009 and signed up with Typepad and put together ten posts to get me started. From there it was easy to just follow my passion and write about the wooden goodness I loved to have on my feet as I made my way through the world. And as luck would have it, big, chunky high-heeled platform clogs (my personal passion) became a worldwide fashion craze soon after I launched. And for several years I had more than enough to post about.
But then as time went on, I came up with other ideas. A weekly feature on the new wood-soled shoes I found on the market. Another weekly feature about secondhand clogs and wooden sandals I found on the resale websites. A day devoted to men’s clog fashions. A semi-regular feature interviewing clog designers and clog makers. It was a wonderful way to immerse myself in something that I love and a handy outlet for the research I was doing anyway: scouring the internet for cool new wood-soled shoes to make my own.
I met some very cool people along the way. How fun to have heard from other passionate clog wearers in every corner of the planet! And chatting with one of them, I won her heart and made her my partner as we “tock, tock, tock” through this world together. And what’s more, I’ve amassed a collection of clogs and assorted other footwear that makes me smile every time I open my eyes in the morning. Though choosing just which pair to wear each day is a problem I’m still wrestling with. If you were a reader of this blog in the early days, you may recall my occasional laments that this style or that was sold out when I finally discovered it and my anguish at having to face the world without that irresistible design on my feet. But happily, the story has a different ending. Over time, my diligent (or maybe you might call it obsessive) attention to the listings on eBay, Etsy, Poshmark, Tradesy, Mercari, and more have led me to spotting many of those “ones that got away” shoes down the road. I’m tempted to collect a few of them for a quick photo op to accompany this post, but I know if I try to create something too involved, I may not get around to getting this final post uploaded for weeks. And yes, since I’m using this as an opportunity to bring this blog to a respectful close, I want to act on that idea while the spirit is moving me.
It’s been a very satisfying decade tracking and talking about the footwear that fuels my fire. And while I’m still pushing the boundaries of fashion in many forefronts still, my muse has drawn me in new directions and the world has presented new opportunities. I’m still telling interesting stories and putting my own unique take on reality out there. But there are just not enough hours in the day to put some of my creativity here. So rather than let Every Clog Has Its Day languish as an orphan on the web that I keep meaning to get back to, I feel a need to draw my active presence here to a close. I contacted Typepad about doing just that, assuming that cancelling my subscription to their services would mean that these pages would disappear. But as I was told by their representative in a recent e-mail, I can suspend my activity (and cease being billed for it), yet the content will remain available. As someone who put a lot of blood, sweat, and back of the heel blisters into this blog, I was thrilled to hear that! And I hope that you as a formally fervent or recently acquainted reader will understand that I don’t give up this space lightly. It’s meant a lot to me to share all this content with you. “Over 1400 posts—that’s a lot!”, wrote the Typepad rep. And yet it’s time to truly be finished here so that I can let it go and continue wandering in the other directions I’m headed in. Wearing fabulous wood-soled shoes on my feet.
Thank you for taking time to read some of the things posted here and join me in ogling at some of the wonderful wooden footwear that exists.
Hey! This final post didn’t take all that long to write! I’ve got a plenty of time to shoot a couple photos from my arsenal after all! And I'll even annotate them, too. Let's see. I think this next section deserves its own title.
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Seek and ye shall find!
I intended to lay these images out in a more thoughtful order, but it's been so long since I've wrestled with the blogging software, my first attempt at organizing this content failed. Rather than tempt fate to frustrate me again, I'm just going to go with the way the software wanted to load them. Life's too short for sensible shoes...and for getting every post on a blog perfect.
Here's the Octavia wedge clog from DVF, Diane Von Furstenberg. First spotted by yours truly in the spring of 2010, and yes, I didn't forget them. The price tag was too high for me to want to by them new at the time, but they surfaced a few months back on eBay in my size so naturally, I pounced. I wore them to work just this past week with a camo lined olive maxi skirt from TOV Holy with black fleece tights from Long Tall Sally. It was a rockin' outfit!
This is the Celestina clog pump from UGG. Spotted here on ECHID in the summer of 2012. I was more smitten with their high heeled clog boots at the time so as much as I wanted this style, I just couldn't make the finances work. But when they showed up in my size in Taupe on eBay in 2014 and then in Raisin (above) on Poshmark the following year, the price was definitely right. Come to think of it, I wore those this past week, too. After I got home Thursday night, my feet were worn out from wearing the Octavia wedge clogs all day (not the best choice for walking to and from the commuter trains, I have to admit) so I slipped these on to go out with my partner in shoe lust, Melissa, for dinner.
This style isn't one that got away. This one slipped past the radar entirely. It's an ankle bootie from N. Y. L. A., and I don't know the style name. The sole is faux wood, and I'm pretty sure it's not real leather either. Still, the price worth the investment on Poshmark. And for a size 11 they were made generously enough to make my tall size feet happy. (That's one thing that's changed in the last couple of years. I am now regularly banishing shoes that cause pain when I rediscover them in my closet and wear them again. Life's also too short for painful footwear.)
There's an ECHID reader somewhere in Europe (Denmark? West Germany?) who was quite a fan of platform sandals. I don't have the woodworking skills to make my own as that reader did. But the idea stuck with me. And then a few years later when I saw a pair of platform cork sandals, I felt the inspiration move me. I went to my local Birkenstock store and got fitted for a proper size. Then I took them to my nearby shoe magician and had him give these babies some height. he took three of the standard Birkie soles and stacked them for me. Of course they're amazingly comfortable in the warm weather. But when it turns cold, I just put on some sweater leggings and thick socks and keep on rocking them!
It was April 2010, and this blog wasn't even a year old when I was filled with that covetous desire we wood-soled shoe fans know so well. The cause was the Brayden slingback clog from Tory Burch. Expensive? You bet! And while I'm not ashamed to pay the entrance fee for admission to an amazing pair of shoes, I think too many other styles of interest came along at the same time. As Steven Wright used to say, "You can't have everything. (beat) Where would you put it?"
Fortunately, this pair was cast out of the closet of a fellow Poshmark patron this past summer. So I opened up my doors and welcomed them to my home.
I wrote about and fawned over this clog bootie from Matisse in November of 2015. I must have a been a jaded clog wearer by then because I don't think I was that excited about this shoe. Or maybe all my enthusiasm was truly gushing for the chunky Esme clog boot that same maker had just released (pictured as the lead style in that same post). Whatever the reason, November 2015 came and went, and so did December 2015 and January 2016. And by then, I'd pretty much forgotten about this clog bootie. Until one of the other sellers on Poshmark wanted to liberate her size 11 from her closet.
"Over here," I shouted. And the mail carrier did the rest.
Okay, this shoe was very nearly an undeniable "One That Got Away." Let's travel back to June 2010. Vince Camuto had just released his Christies cracked leather high heeled clogs, but I discovered them late in the game. By the time I wanted to join in the fun, all the black leather and dark brown leather pairs were gone in my size. So I tried them in two different colors: a light honey color and a pale grey. At the time, I couldn't picture myself in anything but dark leather footwear so even though they fit, I sent them back, thinking that I would probably pick them up when some other clog fan decided to make some room in her closet. So I set up a Saved Search on eBay for "Vince Camuto clogs," and I checked that thing almost nightly for five or six years. Sure, some castoff Camutos did appear. But none of them were in my size. There was one remarkable stretch of time that I commented to Melissa about where that "Vince Camuto clogs" search was turning up about 40 to 50 shoes every week, but none of them were over a size 10. How could so many average-footed clog wearers be bored enough with this style to want to get rid of it, but no one in a size 11 felt the same?
I don't know what changed, but at some point I just stopped looking. I had the search still saved, but I stopped checking it. It seemed like it wasn't meant to be.
And then a year ago, after months of ignoring the listing, I finally did click on it to see if there was anything new. Miracle of miracles! There was a honey colored pair in an 11. My usual habit was to browse through my eBay searches before I closed my iPad and went to sleep. But this night, I bolted out of bed and fired up eSnipe on my laptop to make sure I could make them mine.
And then...
...lightning struck twice. A couple months later, the brown leather variety showed up online, too! Which once again proves the point of this final post: seek and ye shall find. I been seeking. And that's why I been finding!
The UGG Carberry clog bootie. In my book, this is the best of the batch. Comfortable. Cool looking. And it's made of wood. I bought one when they first came out in 2015. Then a couple years later, I stepped off the stage my band would be performing on and landed on the concrete floor a foot and a half below me...and cracked the sole on one of these shoes. I can't tell you how heartbroken I was. This style put together everything I craved in a clog bootie. I had worn this shoe almost exclusively during a three day visit to see my kids in New York. And all it took was an error in judgment, and the shoes were ruined.
A brief period of mourning followed. Accompanied by a new Saved Search for "UGG clog bootie 12" being posted on eBay.
Almost immediately, the universe smiled in my direction and brought a brown pair of these UGG booties to my attention. I snapped them up immediately with thoughts of having them dyed black. But then they went so well with a couple things in my closet, I thought better of that and left my Saved Search in place. It took a while, but suddenly, unexpectedly, and around the same time that the Vince Camuto clog above materialized on line, I spotted a black Carberry bootie from UGG in a size 12.
POUNCE!
Another flash from the past: June 2010. (How remarkable that so many clogs I've been crushing on all came out around the same time? That's worthy of further research. But not on this blog, I'm afraid.) Here's a Stuart Weitzman over the knee clog boot that I noticed in a listing on Neiman-Marcus. Well, right there you've got two names (Stuart Weitzman and Neiman-Marcus) that are code for "it's going to cost you lots of money." And it was true.
Here's what I wrote at the time:
Now we add a fresh layer of agony to our shoe viewing experience. This next pair from Stuart Weitzman is still in the "more expensive than most" camp, but to that we add the pain of seeing a boot so gorgeous in its design and execution that we simply must have it now! And I mean NOW!
I honestly can't recall what this style was listed for, but judging from the two names involved, I'm going to guess over $400. Probably close to $600. I like to think the latter because it makes it all the sweeter that my frequent visits to Poshmark to search for "clog boots" using their "My Size" filter actually unearthed this tall style for only $125. Needless to say, I didn't make an offer at a lower price. I just paid what the seller asked and added them to my wardrobe. Which is why you see me sporting them in the OOTD photo above. I felt this itch to wear that bell sleeve denim dress, but I couldn't figure out what to pair it with. And then, thanks to the cold temperatures that are with us now in northern Illinois, I was reminded that it's sweater legging weather. From there it was an easy leap to skip the black boots that originally came to mind and go with a nice contrasting color. Like,...like,...like those Stuart Weitzman clog boots! Yeah! That's the ticket!
This one, I'm afraid, is not a wood-soled shoe. No trees were felled in the production of this style. But damn, that is one bad ass boot. And though Freebird by Steven (as in Steve Madden) offered this style in a number of colorways, I fell hard for the distressed black with burgundy nubuck back panel. So hard in fact, that when I couldn't find a black pair in a size 11 when the Coal first came out in 2015 (I think), I ordered a used pair in a different color on eBay only to make the crushing discovery that I needed a size 12. Which to the best of my knowledge, they didn't make.
Once again, a period of mourning. (I do that a lot where shoes are concerned apparently.)
And then, for unknown reasons, I happened to wander by the Freebird by Steven website and...lo and behold, my beloved bad ass boot was still being made...and my beloved color combo was still being offered...and...what is this trickery? There's now a size 12 listing!
The style was still being offered for the same high price tag, too, so no pouncing took place. Just a few days of researching and pining and checking fit guides and writing to the company for clarification and then...I pounced.
It's not a clog boot. But it definitely rocked. It looked stellar with the black denim midi skirt I wore this past Monday. It was killer with the grey and red kilt I wore Wednesday. And while initially they felt a wee bit on the snug side when I first pulled them on, these boots are made of real honest to DOC (deity of choice) leather so they're molding to my feet with use.
Woo-hoo!
And finally, there's this style, the Arcola wedge boot from OTBT that I first laid eyes on in 2011. Marketing surely can fan the flames of covetousness, and when I saw the model shot for this shoe in a medium grey, I instantly thought to myself, "I WANT!!!" Again, I think I came to this shoe at the end of the season, and the tall sizes were gone wherever I looked. A few years later, it did surface on eBay, and I asked the seller for a measurement of the inner sole. What she told me wasn't encouraging. And I think the price she was asking was more than I wanted to risk on a shoe that might not fit. (I've been given measurements before that suggest a shoe will be too small, and then when I actually purchase it and wear it, it turns out to be an "I can walk in these all day" pair.) But then more years passed, and I had hit a "bored with what was in closet" phase, and when I typed "OTBT bootie size 11" into Google on my desktop computer at work, it turned up this tan pair on Mercari. "Well, huh," I thought to myself. "I hadn't thought of looking for shoes there." And within a few minutes, I had pulled out my laptop and cruised over to the Mercari website to make a purchase.
As I always liked to say when I was blogging regularly, "So many shoes, so little time." At least I've been able to make a few of my footwear dreams come true. I hope you're able to create some satisfaction in your world as you follow your bliss. It's been a pleasure sharing some of my journey with you. Thanks for stopping by!
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