A lucky phrase when rolling the dice is “come on, daddy needs a new pair of shoes!” I looked it up, wondering its origin.  It turns out to be African-American craps lingo from the First World War derived from “Baby needs shoes.”  It was apparently first recorded in the book, From Baseball to Boches (1918), written by Harry Witwer, who was a well-know magazine humorist in his day.  Boches are German soldiers and gambling was a popular past time for young soldiers between battles.  The phrase came to mind as I was buying shoes yesterday – not for baby – for me.

Every year around my birthday I buy a new pair of running shoes.  I’m not much of a shopper so my tendency is to quickly buy and get out.  For the first time in my life, I took my time yesterday and did some comparison shopping.  My original intent was to simply buy another pair of what I was already wearing, but I realized that in retirement I really wasn’t in that big of rush.  It brought to mind an old acquaintance named David who owned a shoe store and was an advertising client of mine nearly 40 years ago.  I was training for a marathon and bought all my running shoes from him.  Quite frequently, when I would stop by, he would give me a new pair of shoes to try.  They were samples from the manufacturers that he apparently didn’t want himself. Over the years of working with David, I must have tried dozens of different brands that he gave me.   I didn’t want to just take, so when I did buy it was usually Brooks or Saucony.  I liked Brooks because of the heavy heel cushioning and Saucony because they were lightweight.  

For some reason once I stopped working with David, I moved on to some of the other popular brands that he had supplied me, including New Balance and Nike.  The Nike brand is typically too narrow, but living in Portland made me reconsider.  We have the Nike outlet; I wore a Nike Fuel-Band;  I read the book, Shoe Dog, and in the process of becoming quite the loyalist, even applied for the Nike testing program, hoping to find a new David.   For some reason, I was initially accepted and then got a rejection notice.  Over the past two years, I’ve gotten an I-Watch instead of the Fuel-Band, shopped at the Columbia outlet for clothing, and stopped going into the Nike store, since I was never impressed with the service.  I found a locally-owned running store called Roadrunner – Beep Beep!  I was drawn to the name because of the cartoon character, and the fact that I was once part of the Southwestern Michigan Roadrunner Track Club, another connection to my friend David.  Did I mention that his last name was Shoemaker – how appropriate!

So the Shoemaker’s friend needed some new shoes, and interestingly enough I went back to Saucony.  The Roadrunner staff spent some time evaluating my stride via a treadmill test, and it was their first recommendation.  I liked the shoe so much that my intention was to just get a second pair yesterday, so I would have a back-up shoe for the Hood to Coast relay that I’m involved with next week.  This time they gave me four different choices based on my impact tests  – Saucony, Adidas, Brooks, and Nike.  Both Nike and Adidas have built headquarters here in Portland, so I wanted to give them every consideration.  To give her some credibility, the woman I worked with had completed sixteen Hood to Coast races – going on seventeen, and was wearing Brooks.  She said her boyfriend and teammate swore by the Saucony Triumph brand that I was wearing.  Just like the old days, I liked the heel cushioning of the new Brooks G15, and felt that I could rotate the two shoe brands comfortably in my three Hood to Coast legs.  I felt a connection to David Shoemaker – where ever he is now?

Coincidentally, just this morning I received a note from a friend.  She was talking to me over the weekend about a shoe brand I should consider, but couldn’t remember the name.  Her e-mail this morning had a link to Altra Zero Drop running shoes.  I’ll give them some consideration the next time “Daddy needs a new pair of shoes” – since I have plenty of time now in retirement.