Webmedia suvepäevad 2011 olid talendijahi ning loomingulisuse stiilis. Seal sai osaleda Brasiilia ja Aafrika trummide, laulu ning tantsu töötubades. Lõpuks sai neist kõigist poolspontaanselt kokku pandud üks kollektiivne loomingulisuse kompott, kus iga grupil oli oma osa. Sai ka välja näidatud oma loomingulisust T-särgi disainimisel. Nagu ikka, esines Webmedia tantsugrupp ehk Dance BU oma teemakohase etteastega, mida täiendas videoinstallatsioon. Kõike seda me oskame ise teha. Ja palju muudki. Oi kui palju ja kui hästi oskame :) (Vähemalt selline mulje on jäänud).
Aga selle ürituse raames oli avatud ka talentide stend ning Webmedia tüdrukud palusid k6psu kirjutada sinna oma kingade kollektsioneerimise kirest. K6ps siis kirjutas. Kirjutas nõnnaviisi:
You may have seen a MAN walking around in Webmedia office on HIGH HEELS and may have wandered "what the heck..." - that's me :) Shoes are my passion.
Maybe i have that gene which often activates on women and extremely rarely on men. Maybe it is just a common misperception that only women are interested in shoes and and men are not while in reality men are equally interested (there is a research made that supports this theory). Anyways, i have always liked fancy shoes since i was a kid. I have always wanted my shoes to be uncommon and perfect, for as long as i remember. This passion got into a totally new level about five years ago when i discovered men's high-heeled shoes. It was clear that i HAD to get this pair IMMEDIATELY. So i paid quite a lot for it (it was a top designer brand) and from the very first moment i put my feet in, i knew for sure that i'm hopelessly addicted to heels. Novadays i have several pairs of heels and i'm wearing them almost daily. This is my unique style. But besides heels, i of course have lots of other fancy shoes.
My shoe collection is not very big - just about 30 pairs. Each pair is very emotional. Each pair has an extraordinary feature. Each pair has accumulated some particular memories and feelings that always come to my mind again when i put on that pair. In fact, i have only one pair of ordinary shoes: plain black classical men's oxfords by Ecco (just in case i need to go to some funeral or anything like that) and i like that pair too. A few pairs are quite tricky to walk and require skill and confidence. The oldest pair is from 1975 and still has a lot of fun left. The highest heels are 14,5 cm. There are boots, sandals, sneakers, oxfords, loafers, clogs, even flip-flops. There are several different colors. There are a few very expensive shoes. There are the Webmedia's custom-painted white Swedish wood clogs. There are platform shoes, a few of them feature so high platforms that it is dangerous to walk on uneven terrain or drive a car wearing them. There are the Chuck Taylor's sneakers with extra high denim tops. There are blue suede shoes that always remind the the famous Elvis Presley's and Mark Cohn's songs. There are the Vibram FiveFinger toe shoes - the future of adventure sports. There are cowboy-style rainboots that make me smile even under heavy rain. I am constantly in search of new pairs to add to my collection, but unfortunately (or fortunately?) nice extraordinary men's shoes are extremely rarely offered, especially in Estonia. I have purchased most of my collection from some freaky internet stores or from boutiques in some big fashion centers of the world. Especially i'm looking for styles that defy the common strict limits on men's shoes, by designers who can think outside the box. My favorite designers are Jeffrey Campbell, Rick Owens, Natasha Marrow, Acne, Gianni Barbato, Rad Hourani, John Fluevog, and of course Christian Louboutin. I do have a few pairs of women's shoes and i have no problem wearing them. I even have a couple of similar pairs that my wife has, in my size, and we enjoy going out wearing them together. Having my shoes taylor-made and designing shoes myself are something i still have to try.
I like this hobby for several reasons:
- It does not take much extra time. Shoes is a good hobby for people like me who are very much committed to family, home, and career, and therefore do not have enough time for the more time-consuming hobbies. You can enjoy wearing nice shoes while doing many everyday activities such as work at the office, lecture in a university, shop in a supermarket, attend the kids' school and kindergarden events, have a dinner with your friends, have a night out with your spouse.
When you wear fancy shoes, it is harder to be sad, angry, careless, unfriendly, boring, or pessimistic (this is a problem when you need to give time estimates for software development tasks). It is easier to smile, joke, care, get interesting ideas, have fun.
Shoes are good investment (i believe). They do take a lot of money, but not so much as many other hobbies. In this hobby, you normally don't consume anything away while having fun. If you have many carefully selected pairs of shoes and maintain them well, they wear out very slowly and break very unlikely. If some style goes totally out of fashion, it will most likely be in again after ten years or so, and start to gain vintage value. Thus, your collection grows over time, which means the value for the money spent grows rather than shrinks.
Nice shoes make you more attractive and tend to motivate staying healthy.
So i recommend this hobby to everybody. Life is too short to wear only ordinary shoes. Finally, a word of warning: wearing fancy shoes is highly addictive and attracts special attention of people of the opposite gender (yes, guys take a note on that: this works well for men too) :)
