Let's Talk About Boots, Baby

Towards the end of June I mentioned that I was in the process of a boot experiment. As you may or may not know (depending on how long you've been stopping by and perusing these pages) I have gigantic calves and boots that will fit me are more or less impossible to find. I've had some luck with the pull up boots (no zipper) in the past but even now can rarely find a pair of those that will fit. 

Back in June I decided to look online for a pair of boots because as you probably know, boots are cheaper in the summer when people are more concerned with wearing sandals. I remembered that around the time of my birthday I had found a pair of boots online that were for extra wide calves and thought I would see if they were still available in my size and purchase them in hopes that they would fit my calves, which by the way are muscular. I don't want y'all thinking I got some big ole fat flabby calves. My large calves, by the way, come from my mother (thanks a lot, mother); had I inherited my dad's chicken legs, I would not be writing this post. The boots that I had looked at in February were no longer available, but I was able to find another pair (in black) that had the same calf dimensions and I ordered those. 

When the boots arrived a few days later, I was really excited to give them a try. I was able to get the right one one with a little struggle and a slight fear for cutting off the circulation in my leg. The left one was a different story. It went up most of the way, but not all of the way. I pondered whether or not the boots might stretch a little after some wear, but really, that's not how you want to decide whether or not you should keep a purchase. So, I called Erika because I knew that she had once had a pair of boots stretch by the cobbler and I wanted to know more about that and also the cost. She told me she thought it was around $30 or so and that she had used Brady's. You may recall, by the way, that Brady's is the one who told me my favorite brown shoes were, and I quote, "throw aways".

So, I opted to go to Ed's Shoe Repair with boots in tow. I have used Ed's in the past for various shoe and boot mending procedures and my dad has used Ed's in the past as well so I went in to see what Ed could do for me. I took the boots in and asked about stretching them. Ed said yes, that he did stretching and the cost was only $6 and if the stretching didn't work, he could cut the boots open, find matching leather and make them wider. The cot for adding the extra leather was $30. So, I left my boots with Ed with a big smile on my face because I just knew it was going to work! 

A week later I stopped by Ed's only to find out that the stretching would not work because of how wide they already were - I can see you all snickering now and picturing the largest calves of all time. Seriously, I sometimes think I should ask Guinness to come out and measure! The good news, however, was that Ed had found some leather that matched and could cut the boots and make them wider that way. I told him to go for it. I had gotten the boots at a really good price and didn't mind putting another $24 in to them considering this was the closest I had come to finding anything that fit. Furthermore, Ed told me that, "this is what I'm known for" in regards to making the boots bigger so why not go for it? 

A week later I came in and he still had not finished them, but had found some matching leather and cut the boots and wanted me to try them on before he cut the leather to add on to the boots to make sure he had a wide enough piece. So, I stepped into the boots and more or less got a "Wow, glad I didn't cut the leather because I'm going to need a bigger piece than I thought." I told you - giant calves! 

Finally, this week I went by and the boots were ready and they looked fantastic! the leather Ed found was a really great match and unless you are looking specifically for the difference, I don't think you can tell. The left is still a tad tighter than my right but I can get them both on and up with no problems and my feet shall be shod with boots this winter. I really could not be happier about this wardrobe development. I now want to get a pair of brown boots and have him do the same thing because the man is a boot genius! Women of Huntsville, if you need a boot man - definitely go to Ed's Shoe Repair. I assure you, you will not be disappointed!