I've noticed in the past few years that a lot of my friends have taken a liking to the Dansko clog. The first time I really heard about them was from my Mum. She had a pair and raved about them. Great for walking and standing. So I went with her to try a pair on, and I didn't fall in love. They were definitely comfortable, but I thought they looked wrong on my feet.
Since then, I would always look at them in various shoe stores, but never buy. And then I found the Golden Gate collection of Dansko footwear. Less like a clog, more like a shoe, and still very comfortable. I immediately bought a pair of the Jade Mary Janes. Unfortunately, I only wore them a handful of times because they'd always result in blisters on my toes. It took me a few years before I realized that I had been wearing the wrong size. Once that was all cleared up, I was on a Dansko buying spree. All from the golden gate collection though, I still couldn't bring myself to wear the clogs.
A couple years later, I was in Austin for a business trip, and I stayed an extra day to attend a housewarming party. My wonderful friend T was going to be attending this party too, and called me before hand. She had found a pair of unworn Danskos at a thrift store, and while they weren't her size, they were too good to pass up so she bought them. If they were my size, and I liked them, they were mine.
They turned out to be a pair of black and red leopard print Dansko clogs. They also happened to be my size. I slipped them on, and they actually looked okay. Not like the clogs I had tried on so many years ago that just didn't look right to me. How could I pass these up? They were comfortable, and they were pretty darn cool. I ended up wearing them home from Austin.
And this is how I was swayed to the clog side of things. Admittedly, I still prefer the golden gate style, but I'm much more open to the clog than I used to be.
© Whitney Brandt-Hiatt: All writing, images, and photogrpahy are the property of Whitney Brandt-Hiatt unless otherwise noted.