tommyrocket

since 2004 a battle has waged between my bicycle and any pants or shoes that get in the way of it's fury.

pants issue aside for now; i've recently started looking into the shoes issue.

i generally try and buy fair trade/union made and vegan when i can, but i also wear clothes pretty hard, and my bike's toe clips totally decimate any canvas shoes i seem to try. macbeths are great in theory but they disintegrate after a few months of normal wear, who wants that? and the ethletic shoes that look like cons have worn through the sole really quick and the piping on the sides has all but fallen off.

i was thinking about getting some pf flyers since new balance treats their workers well and i'm pretty sure they're vegan, but i foresee the same problems.

it doesn't help that none of my close friends ride bikes as much as i do, so i have no one to discuss these things with the majority of the time. but at the MoCCA convention i talked to my friend Mike T. about it, and he said he always goes with Vans.

I remember always getting vans from the bike shop when i was a kid. slip ons used to come in such wicked patterns! they had a whole book of prints you could look through to pick from and they'd custom make them.

but vans have fallen off my radar for years. i'm not too sure how they treat their workers, and i guess they're not totally vegan? must be the glue...usually look before i leap...

But today i saw these and totally choked on principle and bought them:




at first i thought it was all marketing, but these suckers are triple stitched with ballistic nylon so they don't get ripped to shreds in my clips! i'm considering this a field test! i just got some double clips and straps and need some shoes that can take it...

this is far less interesting than air guitar i know, but i'm intrigued nonetheless