Preparation – the shoelace

Preparation – the shoelace

I dedicate this post to the shoelace that grew into an insolvable problem in the last weeks.

Once upon a time, when I was an enthusiastic rock climber rookie right out of training, I bought a beautiful pair of approach shoes, that I fell in love with instantly. Even if rock climbing silently walked out of my life and canyoning walked into it (less silently), the approach shoes stayed. They make me smile whenever I look at them and I use them everywhere, as they are super comfortable. That’s why they traveled with me on my last Asia trip.

Comfortable, durable, pretty when worn in the city, amazing in outdoors, holds my feet well, the sole holds me on the most slippery terrain, plus the shoes have a small hook at the ankle so I can easily clip them to my backpack. They are just perfect.

Even after wearing them for 3 years almost everywhere, they are still in an okay shape. The only flaw they have is actually a bit more than a flaw: the shell of one of the vibrant orange colored, round shoelace broke and spent the last months of my travel in Asia in a nice unreleasable knot. I couldn’t tie and untie it anymore and stepped into the shoe as into a slipper. After getting home there was always something more important to fix than this, up until there was nothing more important to fix. So I started a shoelace-hunt.

It turned out you can’t purchase this specific type of shoelace anywhere. I visited countless shoe stores, outdoor shops and internet forums to figure out the solution: with zero results. Oh yeah, I considered using a different type of shoelace, but I’m convinced that this lovely shoe would lose part of its charm because of the change of color and style.

But I still didn’t give up, I contacted the manufacturer who didn’t respond at all. After a month I contacted them via facebook explaining that I’m a little disappointed as they didn’t even drop me a ‘sorry, we can’t help’ line. Suddenly they listened: type, size, color codes, shape of the shoelace and many other details where shared. They asked for my address and promised me to send a gift. Just that I keep loving my shoes. Honestly, I was so moved that I got misty eyes.

Well, at this point I forgot how hopeless it is to deal with the Hungarian package delivery services. I had to fight for two weeks to get my 100 gram package. First they simply couldn’t pick my name on the doorbell hidden between 18 other names. Then I spent some time on the phone with their customer service, throwing a tantrum, half-crying and crying – and it made me super sad to see, that this is the only way to have things done. But it seemed to worked.

Finally I got my package, opened it and saw the good news: 3 pairs of new shoelaces. And the bad news: none of them is the one I was looking for 🙂 So the problem remains. The search for the right shoelaces continues. Till the total success my shoes stay unmatched: one with the original smoky hot orange shoelace, the other with a less exciting new one.

shoelaces- pinterjuco.hu