Buying shoes for a Hobbit.

Or, for me. It’s about the same.

While I don’t have a mass of thick hair on top of my feet, my feet are quite similar in shape to the “hobbit foot”. Essentially, this means that my foot is nearly as wide as it is long. It is more rectangular looking than most feet. This causes me a lot of irritation when it comes to buying new shoes.

Some people can go to a shoe store, pick out a pair of shoes that they know will fit, based on the listed size, and be done. This is quite a difference compared to how my visits to the shoe store go. My visits tend to take anywhere from half an hour to an hour and a half, and many times, I end up leaving without a new pair of shoes. The primary cause is that due to my feet being a peculiar size and shape, I don’t even know what size shoe I should be trying on. In the past, the shoe size that has fit me has ranged widely, depending on the type of shoe, the maker of the shoe, etc. Sometimes a 10 wide fits me; sometimes, a 12 or a 12 and a half wide fits me just fine, too. The only thing I can rely on is that yes, the pair of shoes I buy must be labeled as wide. Otherwise, there is no hope for my mammoth feet getting into them.

Even when I find a pair of shoes that my feet will fit into, and which don’t fall off of my feet too easily, often times, they aren’t particularly comfortable. For this reason, I very often go around barefoot - inside, outside in the yard, walking on the sidewalk. After years of doing this, the bottoms of my feet are extremely calloused, making them even more hobbit-like. I can walk over gravel with no real problem at all.

Suffice to say, I can understand why hobbits preferred to go barefoot instead of wearing shoes. When your feet are large and have odd dimensions in comparison to other feet, it’s just easier to go around barefoot. That, and walking on cool grass with bare feet is one of those guiltless pleasure of life, I think.

Having said that: unfortunately, in this day and age, it isn’t practical, or legal, in many places, to go barefoot. One simply must wear shoes. And because of that, I wish to send out a message to all of you who have “standardized” feet, feet which are easily categorized as an 11 1/2, a 7, a 9 1/2 wide: I envy you. Enjoy your perfect feet. There are those of us who are not so lucky.