Shopping for Shoes

I’ve bought many pairs of shoes on line. All were New Balance, from their website and from LL Bean. I know exactly what size fits me with New Balance products and, so far, they have been 100% consistent in their sizing, whether walking shoes, sandals or “other.”

Can’t say I would buy a brand I didn’t know on line…I hate shipping stuff back.

Chris, I have bought shoes online for many years.
First, from experience, I only buy name brands that I recognize.
Second, I use BOTs to find the best price for a specific shoe make, style & color that I won’t to purchase. My most recent purchases were artic trail boots for snow hiking this past winter [Xmas Gift] & Leather Thongs to wear to/from my new Spa. Clarks is usually my top choice, as a dependable, well made, long lasting & very comfortable shoe. I also have some Merril slip-ons, insulated model for winter & uninsulated for summer. Third, if buying online you want the source to tell you if the make & model differ from stds. [e.g. buy a size larger than you normally would, etc.].

My 19 year-old son is crazy for unusual athletic shoes… he doesn’t want to see his shoes on anyone else’s feet. We have bought several pairs from the Converse website and been pleased. But, because of the following story, we will be Zappos.com customers for life.

Near the end of last summer he used his lawn-mowing money to buy 2 pairs of shoes from Zappos. Each pair was in the $80-100 range… a huge purchase for a broke teenager, but shoes are his only extravagance. He took his brand new shoes to college orientation, and proceeded to leave one shoe behind in the dorm room, where it was promptly trashed by the cleaning crew. I sent an e-mail to the company explaining the situation, and asking if he might be able to buy another pair of the shoes for a discount (realizing they surely could not sell just one shoe). Imagine our shock when they overnighted a free replacement pair of shoes! They promote themselves as “a customer service company that happens to sell shoes.” Of course, it was money well spent on their part, as I can’t count how many friends I’ve told this story to in the past year. Also, the fact that they pay for return shipping if you get a pair of shoes that don’t work makes any purchase risk-free. I just LOVE this company.

I’ve bought from shoebuy for several years. Excellent service, great prices. The trick is to use a deal website (I use dealnews dot com) to let you know when shoebuy is offering 20%-off coupons.