The story behind my old man shoes. A few years back I joined a boxing club to work out and get fit and continue my sporadic on and off relationship with boxing. The last time I “boxed” I had joined a boxing club in college about 10 years ago. But this latest boxing kick was about 3-4 years ago and I joined a local boxing venue’s boxing training/workout/lessons type thing.

Before my first class I had to rush to the sporting goods store to get flat soled tennis shoes as per my recommended class items. Well I was running late having got off of work late. So here I go and grab the first shoes I see that are not running shoes and that are flat soled “tennis” shoes. And what do I end up with before I even thought twice about it. The Classic Old Man shoes. I didn’t even realize it until weeks later when I was out in town and I saw an older man (50s/60s) wearing them and ever since I’ve seen these exact New Balance shoes on a lot more older men around town.

Well I continued classes for a little while, but I stopped going after a couple of months. Not because we were doing alot of running and the old man shoes were not ideal for as much running as we were doing but because I had joined a Gold’s Gym because of a fire sale they were having and it was 10x closer to my then apartment.

Any how, years later these old man shoes have remained in my closet untouched almost like new. Never knowing what to do with them or when to wear them, I just kept them around because there was no reason to give them away or throw them away. I guess I thought one day it would be appropriate for me to wear them once I reached the “age” when I’d be wearing dad jeans doing other old man stuff.

But no, I’ve elevated their status recently to Yard Work shoes. Every guy has a certain collection of different types of shoes they keep around, a hierarchy if you will. Maybe they started as your nice running shoes that were demoted to a working shoe. Or they were your casual tennis shoes you wore out on weekend outings that became a little ratty but still good for other occasions. We all have a system for keeping shoes around, well at least I do. Where women I think keep tons of shoes for fashion and form. Guys keep a lot of shoes around for function. And these old man shoes were not going to be the exception. They are my yard work shoes.

Now if only I had some jean shorts, I’d be styling.