I was going through my old photos today. While scrolling through the memory lane I realized that I have worn the same shoes for over a decade now. I bought my first pair of Vans before moving to Kerala in October'13 - new shoes for my very first job, and that too in a new city. And I have kept buying the same pair again & again over the last decade.
Also since I hated taking selfies, most of my pictures of myself are of my shoes walking or standing somewhere unless someone else offered to take a photo.
Since I owned a pixel 2 at that point in time, I used to take a lot of photospheres in which the only part of me in the photos are my vans & they are kind of my favourite photos of the type "I was here". But I couldn't find a way to include photospheres properly on this blog, so will have to do with these instead.
Post this trip I had to switch to a couple of sports shoes for a couple of years since I couldn't find vans in the colour I liked. From the above photo it should be apparent that I had used the hell out of my favourite shoes by then, and should have changed them sooner. But as always my inertia for any kind of change got in the way - If it ain't broke...
After that the pandemic raged till the end of 2021, and I didn't get a chance to hunt for a new pair of my favourite vans outside Hyderabad. At the start of 2022, Aishwarya & I moved to London, along with my new shoes. But my dogs, as comfortable as they were, were still barking for good old vans.
I had a team event in SF in May. Luckily, I walked across a Vans store while in a mall & saw the light shining through parted clouds fall on the exact colour of Vans I used to own. This time to make sure I don't run out of them again for a couple of years, I applied the N + 1 rule & bought 2 pairs.
And we have lived happily ever after since!
After this trip I am again on my last pair of Vans. I guess I should start looking for a backup pair soon!
