The New Shoe Dilemma

On a slight side track from the extremely eventful and exciting lifestyle of a junior curler on Team Walker...

The team decided to purchase new shoes this season for a couple reasons -- mostly because our beloved balanceplus were worn out to the point of disrepair. Instead of sending them back to the manufacturer as we most likely will eventually do, we decided investing in a new pair might be the safest track to take. Well, this turned out to be a poor decision.

First of all we went through our "club store" which went through Steve's Curling Supplies so as to avoid extra customs fees. Good plan, except balanceplus was "backordered" for the deluxe shoe for about three months or something, so we JUST got the shoes we ordered back at the end of the summer. (and to make things more difficult, Jillian's shoes weren't even ordered with the original shipping, but that's a whole different story).

Now I would be completely fine paying 300 dollars for shoes AND waiting a long time for them -- they are good shoes, probably the best and since I dislike other brands, my next option would be to make my own curling shoe -- BUT while practicing for the first time in them today, I discovered that my gripping foot sole is already wearing away. Not only that but Nikki and Laura's have been as well. Now wait a minute, wasn't this the reason we bought new shoes in the first place, because our old ones were falling apart? Needless to say, I don't recommend buying balanceplus shoes at the moment, at least until they "fix" (as I'm hoping they will) this problem of weak plastic or whatever it is on the bottom of the shoe. Until then I'm three hundred dollars poorer and unhappy about it.

On a more positive note - Team Walker has a full practice schedule in store for the Thanksgiving break. We are all home! And we will be gearing up for the Morgan Stanley Cash in Madison next weekend as there is a certain team that we would really like to beat!