About shoes, discipline, comfort zone, and maintenance

A while ago I was sitting with a morning coffee and found myself pondering over other's shoes. Casual, light shoes, sneakers, trainers, running shoes everywhere. Barely ever a well-made leather boot, which, considering winter, is my first choice. Studies say over-cushioned footwear is really not good for us in the long term. For me, certainly not: I need a decent arc support, which is a rarity in the UK, so I resort to aftermarket insoles - or so I thought.

Once every half year now I show myself at work, for our all-hands. Since I work in IT, I'm used to wearing and seeing people in hoodies, t-shirts, and all that jazz, but for that twice a year gathering I try to show up nicer, in some level of business casual. And I'm slowly finding myself alone with this, as I've seen people come in shorts.

When I was a kid - mind you, we're talking 30+ years now - it was considered minimum etiquette to dress up for theatre, opera, ballet, etc. As time progressed I saw people go business casual first, then complete casual. I still, to this very day, believe that showing up in decent apparel is a way of expressing respect, so with live performances of such, I consider it a must - obviously not for a metal concert or an industrial party though.

I practice martial arts that has their own uniforms. I was never keen on the idea that practising anything needs a specific type of clothing but for sturdiness, but I also never actively went against it. After discussions with various people it became clear how it can signal both belonging from the group perspective, and dedication from the student. It also helps to be mentally present: a small ritual of changing into the right clothes for the coming class.

Somewhere I read that a little while ago being able to hold a job and raising a family were things to be proud of, and how it got distorted by now. To me, the utter lack of discipline in clothing feels part of this trend. Whatever doesn't feel comfortable can't be good for you, right?

Well, that is quite untrue. Overly comfortable, cloudy-soft sofas will wreck your body, so will the lack of exercise. Even if it looks OK, it can be deceiving. About a decade ago I ended up having an MRI on my lower back, because whenever I lifted my right thighs I felt a lightning-like pain, starting from the lower back, down to my ankles. I went to physio, and eventually got rid of it - until 2020. During the pandemic I ordered an IKEA Markus chair, and within a few months, the same pain came back out of nowhere - allowing me to realise I was using the same chair at work when it first manifested! I ended up buying a second hand Herman Miller Aeron fairly cheap - no issues since then.

So the solution is to "get out of your comfort zone"?

The "comfort zone" is this ideal place where you can be as lazy as you want to be, and live happily ever after. If you "feel like you need to get out of your comfort zone", you're not in your comfort zone. However: that "happily ever after" doesn't go hand in hand with complete laziness. You must work on your body, otherwise it'll go bad, go off, like old milk. If you really don't care of yourself, you'll smell like old milk as well, which is certainly not nice for anyone, including you. Remember: If you feel like you hate yourself, have a shower¹.

This is why I believe that "comfort zone" is often misunderstood or misused. It's the nice place, the one where things work, your equipment doesn't break down, where you have enough money to not worry, or at least not much, where food is fine, your home is warm, where you have people around you, where you feel good, and where your body is in a good condition. But it's not lazy, it can't be. With too much comfort, too much laziness, your body will not be in a nice condition at all, which means that in order to maintain that "comfort zone" you need to work quite a lot on it. This also applies to the rest: you need to maintain friendships, maintain the influx of money, maintain your equipment, so they don't break down.

Some of it can be done near invisibly, though. You can get a hard, high quality mattress²³, which will require your body to shift in sleep, which you do for 1/3rd of you life. You can take regular hot baths; go to a spa do to the same, or maybe go further, and find an accupressure specialist⁴ to maintain your chi flow.

You can also make conscious choices on footwear.

In the past 2 years I bought 5 shoes/boots, and 3 in the end. This is an absolute extreme for me so far, a record for my live, given I tend to wear my boots for at minimum 5 years if not more.

One I sold. I found at half price in a TK Maxx, was an AKU Grizzly 907/3 10 7 country boot⁵ which was absurdly comfortable, but overly warm: after wearing it twice on the coldest possible days in Cambridge, and ending up sweating, but someone bought it from me on eBay is is very happy with it.

The other was an expensive choice in a disappointed moment: a Cheaney & Sons Hurricane Boot⁶ The story behind it is that I've been looking to get a replacement for my now 9 year old Martens Samuel boots, and I did so for 2 years. In one bitter moment of yet again being unable to find anything decent for my feet, I walked into their Cambridge store, told them what I'm after, and they gave me a surprisingly well fitting, astonishing boot. I was not expecting that it'll need a month to break in. By the way, if I managed to keep this shoe worn for 7+ years, which I intend to, it's not that expensive when realised for the time frame.

What I was also not expecting is that once I put in an arc-supporting insole, like I do with all my boots, it'll start to show the same, rather extreme wear pattern when I only wear out the sole at the outer edge of the heel. And it got me thinking - do I still need that support I thought I do? Where the custom made insoles in Hungary different, because back then, this kind of wear pattern was never an issue, only since I started wearing the ones I got in the UK? Especially after Mr. Tanaka, the health wizard⁷ looked at my legs the first time and told me: "Sometimes knee feel funny when walking, yes?" Have my body changed?

Our bodies change, I shouldn't even question that. They need different kinds of maintenance throughout or lives: sometimes to develop muscle, coordination, other times to strengthen the core, the joints, tendons, ligaments; yet times to soften up stiffness, and all the time: stretching. My body, while it's sometimes hard to accept, has changed a lot over it's 40 decades course, so there's every chance that my feet need different support now, than it did 20 years ago.

Some while ago I was reading the r/onebag/⁸ subreddit and came across the Xero Prio⁹. I usually don't like running shoes, but I was looking for a lightweight backup shoes for decades (I'm not joking), and this caught my eyes - especially their claim on being "foot shaped". When it was finally back in stock, I ordered one. My feet is approximately 275mm in light socks, so I ordered a UK 9.5 - and it was the perfect size. Too bad the first pair had a manufacturing fault (the lining had a bump at the front, which pushed my right large toe to the side, which was utterly uncomfortable), but after a weird return process, where they asked me to mark the bad shoes with bright paint and send the photo of it, I got a replacement pair, and I'm surprisingly happy with it.

What's different with them is their absurd lightness, like not wearing anything, which is also because of the shape, and indeed, it's unusual. Also much more comfortable, as there's no pressure on the toes from either side. The barefoot feeling it gives with the thin but tough soles and the 3mm insole is also different to what I'm used to but I think it's part of the whole experience. These are really good shoes, and though it's supposed to be a fitness/running shoe, it's performing quite well for my everyday tasks so far, but it's going to be quite strange at first.

However, Xero also has nicer looking shoes, so I ordered a leather lined Denver boot from them. I ended up returning it within minutes from receiving - the relatively strong boot with the thin sole was weird, but the tongue was pressing on my ankles bones at a painful position was a deal breaker.

The last one I got was an Altberg Blueline Aqua¹⁰ (UK 9.5 as well, a tiny bit airy in light socks, but perfect with normal weight socks). I got these to replace my second, now ~8 years old Lowa Mountain Boots. Those (the Lowa) originally arrived with a wrinkle in the lining that took months to get used to, had a partial resoling done about 2 years ago, and had already worn out that re-sole at the extreme of the outside of both heels. It also didn't feel good to walk in them any more, and decided, with a heavy heart, to throw them out - which was the plan when I got the AKU above, which didn't work.

About a decade ago I already tried ordering from Altberg, and I found the boot extremely well made - but not for the shape of my feet, as I have slightly upwards angled large toes, which doesn't allow me to wear anything that has a sloping toe box. However, in the years since, Altberg started a new last which they call Aforme¹¹, an addition to their traditional lasts¹². Surprise: it's also more foot shaped and fits much, much better! However, I'm still in the process of getting a hang of this boot - the foot part is spot on, but I need to get happy with the stitching line of the collar.

So there: now I have 3, relatively new shoes. I removed the non-original arc supporting insoles from the Cheaney, and I will not put one back in.The Xero and the Altberg came with their own insoles, so I will focus more on walking with my core - essentially my dan tien - activated. I'm hoping to have a better wearing pattern, and thus, to maintain a healthy joint and support system.

This all ties back to those strange interrelation between discipline, comfort, posture, and all. If I buy cushioned, cloudy shoes, my body will go lazy, so I need to get shoes with less or different kind of support, and serious concentration on re-training my gait.

If I show up at work gathering in full casual, people will react and expect accordingly: maybe not giving me opportunities or not having the right effect when needed, which can eventually lead to a drop in my comfort by a stagnating income.

I don't think any of these are "getting out of the comfort zone", but efforts to stay in the comfort zone as long as possible. The lazy zone - that's the real problem, when we don't do the maintenance, and when we forget to question if we're doing it right. Not out of routine, but out of what is actually needed, revisited, revised, when required - especially for the body, which constantly changes.

(Oh, by the way: this entry was written by Peter Molnar, and originally posted on petermolnar dot net.)