The Shoes Are Tragic

The title is a well-worn line from the 1990 movie My Blue Heaven, when Steve Martin's recently arrested character Vinnie looks at the footwear worn by Hannah Stubbs, the assistant district attorney played by Joan Cusack, and expresses his disdain.

I was browsing through Time's Person of the Year 2008 photo spread when I saw this picture of Barack Obama, and I was reminded of that line.

This was not the first time I had seen the Obama photo. In fact, I had viewed it several times during the course of the campaign, and had read about how Obama was going through his second re-sole of this particular pair of shoes since the campaign had begun.

At the time, I contrasted that against the hundreds of thousands of dollars that were spent on clothing, accessories, and stylists for Sarah Palin and her family, and contemplated what it meant that the leader of one ticket was having a single pair of shoes repaired for the second time as he worked to disseminate his key message of changing the way government worked, while the other ticket spent obscene amounts of money to gussy up a lightweight, inexperienced candidate while claiming to be representative of the working men and women of this nation - Joe and Suzy Sixpack, if I recall correctly. Style over substance?

Today marked the first time I'd seen the Obama shoe sole photo since the election. I pondered anew the significance of it all, given everything that has happened in the six weeks since voters cast their ballots.

An economy in shambles, with rising unemployment, shrinking credit availability, and an uncertain future await the President-elect. $350 billion of the $750 billion in TARP funds has been disbursed so far to financial institutions who are refusing to account for how much they have received or how it's been spent. $15 billion dollars have been allocated to GM and Chrysler to act as a bridge that allows them to finally put together a working business model that they hope will delay their extinction.

The pace and number of home foreclosures quickens, and those who either bought more house than they could afford or who lost their jobs and can no longer keep mortgage payments current grows weekly. Some lenders have placed temporary stays of execution on mortgage foreclosures in an attempt to keep families in their homes, but it's less altruistic than it is a desire to recoup some of their investment during a time when falling real estate values makes it problematic to foreclose and try to sell off the large number of properties flooding the market.

Frightened consumers who have been spending with both hands and one foot suddenly put the brakes on their addiction, throwing into a tizzy retailers and restaurants, travel and entertainment, and just about every other type of business reliant on the free flow of disposable income.

As I gaze on the Obama photo now, I see something else. Obama was right. I get it.

It's been articulated thousands of times in stump speeches and slogans, batted about by television pundits like three kittens playing with a ball of yarn, outlined in pressers and commentary by bloggers and writers across the communication spectrum. Economic stimulus, middle-class bailout, call it what you will. How do we turn this turd barge around without sinking?

It's back to economic fundamentals, baby. Goods and services. Making things with intrinsic value that are in demand, and manufacturing them to be durable, of high quality, to be counted on in good times and bad. Infrastructure. The important things, where the rubber (or sole) hits the road. Roads and bridges, ramps and streets, sidewalks. Jobs and salaries that pay taxes, manufacture of materials, transportation, repairing this place from the bottom up. Obama is right on.

Everyone needs good shoes, made from quality leather (sorry, PETA), with solid stitching, and durable outsoles. A spacious toebox that doesn't cut off circulation to your toes (fashion be damned), and a balanced heel counter that keeps your foot centered on the insole, to assist in stability and save on sock replacement, not to mention knee replacement later in life. A vamp that's expertly designed to ensure lacing pulls the shoe snugly to your foot for fit and comfort.

There's no glory in delivering a well-designed shoe vamp, or outsoles that keep you off your ass, literally and figuratively. You won't make a million dollars faster than Manola Blahnik and his preposterously priced designer stilleto heel collection, but sales of $2000 shoes are dropping like a stone as shoe repair shops report 20 to 40 percent increases in business, from those same $2000 Manolas to more reasonable shoes originally priced from $150 - $300.

There was no reason for the lemming-like footwear purchasing crusades we've seen over the last ten years. I blame people with more money than sense, and Sarah Jessica Parker. But it's certainly representative of the larger attitudes and behaviors that have driven our economy to the brink of Hoover-ism with a healthy dose of George W. tossed in. We did it because we could, and we refused to believe the shoe party would ever end.

$2000 shoes don't help you walk any better (quite the opposite, from what I hear), and I'm told many designer shoes actually hurt the feet and cause much glee to the American Board of Podiatric Surgery. Why wear them? It's all about appearances. There's no added value other than being recognized as someone who can afford Manola's.

I'm pretty sure OJ Simpson was wearing Manola shoes. 'Nuff said.

We're moving from a Manola Blahnik economy of style over substance to an Obama-led cobbler society of foundational integrity, where there's value and reward directed toward those who make and wear the common footgear, rather than the 2% of society who have more shoe dollars collecting dust in their closets than the GDP of Paraguay.

I hope Mr. Obama keeps those worn soles on display in the Oval Office to remind himself and all of us what led to his success and what it will take for our nation to return to a position of strength and prosperity, where all citizens have the opportunity to live the good life. Let's stand for something. Let's stand for shoes.