I have an amazing tale to tell. I have been on a visication, this week with my mom. It is like a staycation, but it happens when a visitor comes to town. We have been having an absolute ball together.
Shopping has been pretty high on the list. My mom likes to buy me things and I have learned not to feel guilty about this and now fully enjoy the experience. One of the places on the list was the SAS Outlet Store. My mom learned about it on her bus trip.
The outlet store is exceptional. There are so MANY varieties of SAS shoes. More than I remember seeing in the regular stores, but it has been a while. The service was superb. I could get used to having someone put on my socks and shoes everyday. Mom got us each a pair. Mine are these cute bootie styled shoes called Alpine.
While I was shopping I noticed a big hide by the demo area that was colored fuschia. And I thought that was a very fine color for shoes. I noticed some little kid shoes that were in some pretty colors in that area, and I figured that was what the fuschia was for.
On the last potty break before leaving, I saw that there was going to be a factory tour in 15 minutes. My mom loves to tour factories, so I told her about it. We got one last bag of nickel popcorn and waited for the tour bus. It was a very informative tour. It was fascinating to see how many steps go into creating a pair of shoes. And that was just for the assembly. The parts are made in other cities.
Even though each station had an operator and some kind of machinery, I still felt that the process was fairly manual. A couple of operations were very manual with hand-stitching and lacing. While I was there, I did have the thought that it wouldn’t be hard to make custom shoes. Probably not cost-effective, but certainly possible.
(photo taken earlier in the day)
The next day, I wore my new shoes for the first time while going for a bike ride on my new orange bike. I was wearing my flower shirt that has a million colors in it, but picked out my orange bandana specially for the christening of the bike. And even though the shoes didn’t match my outfit, I wore them because I wanted my feet to be comfortable. Biking in Crocs hurts my feet.
While putting my shoes on, I said to my mom–outloud–that I wished I had a fuschia pair of these shoes. While black is good, I’m pretty sure that almost everything in my wardrobe would look better with fuschia shoes.
As I was waiting for my friends to show up at Blue Star to start our bike ride, I photographed how the bike fit in the back of my car, so Chuck could see. These two guys were leaving in their car, but stopped to chat with me. They were attracted to my colorful shirt and orange bandana. But then they noticed my shoes and they realized that they were their shoes. They both work at SAS factories. One makes the cushion inserts and the other makes the soles.
They were asking if I thought they were comfortable. They are very comfortable, but I was hesitant in my answer because I had barely worn them. I have very fussy feet. I can report now that my feet didn’t hurt after my bike ride or after my little walk today.
While I was chatting with these guys I said that I thought they should be made in fushcia, in my normal outrageous way. That was when I learned that these guys were from SAS, as they offered to have a pair made for me in fuschia. They took my shoe size, contact info, and said I should have a pair before Christmas.
It is pretty amazing what one can co-create when one is in flow–happy, playful, and open to possibilities.
I have been a Crocs girl for a long time, but I see SAS sandals, Maria’s (related to Mary Jane) and some fuchsia Alpines in my future!
