March Madness (of shoes)

It's been no secret that my Adidas Trail Marathon 10s have not been working out.  I had a pair of Adidas Falcon Elites too, but that felt like I was running on two doorstops with the high end on the outside.  Those also had a puncture wound in the top of each thanks to my titanium toenails.  So they got relegated quickly to walking shoes, and even hurt in that capacity, so they are out.  So, not being able to revert back to the TR2's I loved and wore in 2010 training for and running The Crim, because I couldn't find them, I was kind of without a standard running staple.  I'm still sitting on my TR3's for summer trails and the Galaxy Elites (a.k.a. my "Bumblebees") which have been so wonderful on long distance I am saving them in case I can't do better.

However, that's two bad Adidas in a row, and I thought that warranted a shake up.  So I tore through a Dunham's a few weeks back, and, much like the NCAA's March Madness went through a very large field of candidates whittling the field down to my own Final Four.  It took a while, even more time than making this logo...

This Art Says:  "Please Appreciate My Blog's Periodic Silly Logo Making"

Anyways, let's see our current bracket...

On our left side top, in the red, white, and grey we have a pair of Puma Levaios.  I haven't had a pair of Pumas since the late 90s when I had a pair that was burgundy suede casuals.  They were picked in the store because they were light, looked awesome, and felt really close to right (though maybe a little too flat for my foot, but really really close to perfect).

On our left bottom, in the grey, yellow, black, and white we have my first ever pair of Sauconys.  They were the best fit I had in the store and seemed to hug my feet perfectly.  This doesn't always mean everything (last year's Asics), but it was why they got taken home.  The only potential problem I saw in the store was that they had the same slanting issue to them as both the Adidas-gone-bad had.

On our right top, in the black, red, and white we have the Devil, errr, I mean Nike Revolution.  Now I've been avoiding Nike like the plague for years.  I used to like them when I was younger, but a few sweatshop scandals and a solid disliking of Michael Jordan changed it all rather quickly in the late 90s.  Honestly, I think my last Nike's were bought in middle school.  I forced myself into these because they looked sweet, felt great, and I had to make sure I wasn't ignoring some kismet shoe relationship for superficial reasons (like not wanting to give MJ more money to get into gambling troubles...).  I promise I've been giving them a fair shake in my deciding.

On the bottom right, in black and grey we have a pair of New Balance 467 All Terrains.  I loved how they were built like a tank but light as a feather, which are two things I really like to have in shoes.  It doesn't hurt that they have nice, non-flashy regular shoe look about them, either.  "Shoes these days are too flashy," says old man Brent.  They were the last shoe in, and almost lost to a pair of Reebok DMXs, but got the nod due to me feeling I was in between sizes on the Reeboks.  I'm happy I chose them so far, especially upon realizing they're, at least in part, made in the U.S.

So there you have my shoe final four.  It's much better than the NCAA Final Four, because Ohio State is disgusting to me, and so are the other 3 teams.  I'm glad I was too busy playing tennis when my Alma Mater lost, otherwise I would have probably been laying on the floor crying just like a Rick Pitino restaurant date.  It sounded like it was a brutally disgusting choke.  Oh well, if you actually have to watch the rest of the baskethoops, but don't know or care and just want to fit in, here is the Final Four explained by Corgis.

I'll announce a winner sometime early next month.