Split Size Shoe Orders and Tariffs — Beating The Tax On My Feet
I am here today to sing the praises of Seattle-based upscale department store Nordstrom.
Now, I’m not the kind to heap praise on any corporation. But praise should be given when it is due, especially when a company helps you in a very real way to deal with what will soon be rapidly rising prices.
Here’s why I’m praising Nordstrom:
I’ve been 100 percent disabled since 2011. In the decade between 2008 and 2018 I had five major back surgeries. The first three operations were less than one year apart.
Eight of my vertebrae are fused, held together with 5 centimeter surgical titanium screws and bars. Four vertebrae in my neck and four in my lower back are fused. My left foot is paralyzed. I have a condition commonly known as drop foot.
In order to walk more or less normally I wear a brace on my left foot.
Because of the brace I require two different size shoes. My left foot needs a size 13 wide to fit over my brace. My right foot is a US men’s size 9.
New Ecco slip-ons with my faithful Merrill hiking boot at right. Split size shoes are hard to find.
This situation rendered all of my existing shoes – dress shoes, penny loafers, topsiders, sneakers and my beloved Merrill beach hiking sandals – useless. They all went to Goodwill.
Some of you may have noticed that shoes are expensive. When my left foot became paralyzed in 2018, I didn’t know what to do for shoes. I wasn’t even sure what terminology to use to search online for a place that would allow me to buy one size 13 shoe and one size 9.
I just could not bring myself to buy two pairs of shoes every time I needed new shoes.
So, I purchased a pair of size 12 “tactical” hiking boots that zipped up the side but also had laces. The left was large enough to fit over my brace, but it was tight. For the right I put in arch supports and wore two pairs of socks so my feet didn’t slide around too much.
Did I mention that the only form of exercise that I can really do is walking? So footwear is important, especially since I can no longer ride a bike, swing a tennis racket, golf club or baseball bat, the latter three are activities that make your spine twist. With spinal fusions the only way to break a medical-grade titanium screw is to twist or flex it laterally. You don’t want that. Trust me.
Walking, for me, isn’t just important. It’s key to my continued good health, both physical and mental, and ability to control my already excessive weight.
New split size sneakers. That’s a size 13 wide on the left that fits nicely over my brace.
So I continued to search for a place that would sell me two different size shoes. After about two years of looking I learned the search terms I wanted are “split size shoes” or a “split size shoe order.”
At the time, the only retailer I could find that would do this was online shoe seller Zappos, owned by Amazon. Zappos didn’t regularly do split size shoe orders, but sometimes they had them on a special page. I found a pair of Merrill hiking boots and a pair of Merrill slip-on Jungle Mocs in my required sizes for the correct feet.
I held my nose from the Jeff Bezos stink and bought them.
I had already worn out the oversize “tactical” boots I bought right after my foot was paralyzed. My Jungle Mocs are already wearing out, and my essential Merrill hiking boots are beginning to show their age. I looked again on the Zappos site and there were no split size orders available.
Then, late last year, we had to attend a wedding. Lacking dress shoes, I had to wear the hiking boots.
We’ve been trying to not buy things, but I really needed at least one new pair of shoes.
Then came the election and the installation of the American Reich.
As everybody knows, the Reich started an ill-advised trade war with China and the other nations that produce most of our stuff, especially shoes and clothing. According to the website World Population Review, China is the world’s leading shoe producer, making 60 percent of all shoes, some 13 billion pairs per year.
The last of American shoe manufacturing, primarily in the cities of St. Louis and Cincinnati, folded about 30 years ago. The equipment to make shoes from stalwart brands like Buster Brown, was sold to overseas manufacturers in China, India, Vietnam, Pakistan and Indonesia.
Sorry MAGA, American shoe making isn’t coming back.
It’s a no-brainer that with the irrational tariffs already expensive shoes were going to become REALLY expensive. I wanted to beat the tariffs before something as basic as a pair of shoes became unaffordable for me.
About a week ago, I began a quest to find retailers where I live, San Diego, that would do split size shoe orders. Many phone calls to the likes of local athletic shoe seller Road Runner Sports and even REI all answered with a nope. There was only ONE retaier that would do a split order.
Nordstom.
Nordstom began in Seattle in 1901 as a shoe store. Shoes remain one of their core departments. Nordstom also prides itself on service.
I know the sales staff at at Nordies is on commission, but they really did go above and beyond. Only certain manufactures will do split size orders, they explained. I wound up with a pair of sneakers from New Balance and slip-ons from Ecco.
Total bill with tax for both pairs was a little less than $270. I considered that a deal.
The way it worked was they would have to order a pair of shoes to match with the identical styles the had in stock. One brand had 13s in stock, but not 9s for what I wanted. The other was vice versa.
Last Friday we made the purchases. The department manager said the orders would be in on Tuesday. We’d pick up the shoes that needed to be ordered and then the shoe department would match them with the pairs that were in stock.
And that exactly what happened.
Today, I have my new shoes. I’m not exactly a clothes horse, but I’m thrilled.
Thank you Nordstom and the shore department sales staff at University Towne Centre (sorry, I’m not calling the shopping center by its current corporate name). You helped me beat the tariffs and get some decent new shoes.
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