MEDIUM

Medium's Minimalist shoe

I rarely allow myself to own more than four pairs of shoes. I have one pair of black Simple O.S. Sneakers for everyday wear, purchased at the Ballard Fred Meyer. I have one pair of black hi-top Chucks, the official shoe of the aging hipster. I have one pair of Doc Martens boots, mostly for sentimental reasons (there was a time where going to concerts without them was ill-advised). And I have one pair of vintage wing tips — doesn't matter the brand, as long as they pass muster at any rockabilly shows I should have occasion to attend.

A few weeks back, however, I did the previously unthinkable: I graduated to a fifth pair. While staggering from Hattie's Hat to The People's Pub, I saw a pair of pewter-colored Medium Minimalists, $90, in the window of Re-soul, a shoe boutique on Ballard Avenue. The following day, when I realized that I hadn't simply invented the shoes in a boozy haze, I went back to Re-soul and bought them. It's hard to say what attracted me to them in the first place, but now that I've worn them around for a while, I can tell you why they've pushed my other four pairs out of circulation. Hell, I may even wear these to the Tractor.

The bottom line — as it is with most any other shoe that I want to wear — is comfort, and the Minimalist, despite its ever-trendy good looks, is comfortable as anything. It rides low, almost flat, yet provides better-than-average support even for me (I have no arches to speak of). The canvas upper is lightweight, yet tough, and the shape of the shoe is almost perfect. It's worth noting that this is the first pair of sneakers I've owned that I haven't been able to slip on and off without unlacing first. Even with all the abuse I've given my Mediums over the past month, the shoes have held their shape.

Also, they look terribly cool. True to its name, the Minimalist does away with all the crap that usually goes on sneakers (the overbearing logos, the raised rubber protrusions, the absurd NASCAR-like striping) and delivers a spare, elegant shoe that's nonetheless distinctive. I pretty much wear my Mediums everywhere, to bars, to business functions, sometimes even to bed (though not really), and they're always — always — the right shoe at the right time. I ought to go drunk shoe-shopping more often.