I don’t like to be the one to tell a person he has exchanged his money for less than he could have.  I don’t want to be the one to point at another man’s shoes and say Nice shoes, bad value.  It’s just not like me.  I wish that everyone always made the right choices and used their resources optimally, but sometimes they don’t.  Sometimes people buy shoes will not enter their possession unless they give up 80, 90, or 110 dollars.

Blame for the acquisition of such shoes did not used to be generated inside of my person.  They are nice shoes, just what you need for minimalistic running and “Elite-Fitness”; It’s hard to find shoes like that with a little price tag, I said.  I was wrong.

Walmart is a store that sells, amongst other categories, a variety of low quality products at low prices.  We’ve all bought from there t-shirts bearing American flags and DVD players that broke in 6 months.  We’ve eaten the Great Value brand tortilla chips.  We’ve walked through the narrow aisles and gotten lost in the baby’s clothes section.  Perhaps on one of these wanderings from the grocery to the sporting goods section you’ve walked past their rows of bland shoes?  Perhaps you even stopped to feel sorry for the poor lower class who can only afford those generic, rigid and heavy concoctions of rubber slabs and nylon?

I used to walk by those aisles, too, and practice bubbling up the springs of compassion.  I used to walk by there in nice, name-brand shoes.  I never would have guessed that next time I walked through Walmart, I’d be wearing one of their own.

What can I say?  The pair of Men’s Airspeed Demo 3.0 Street Sneakers that hung on a hook called out to me as I passed.  I took a closer look: they were like Converse or Vans, but much lighter.  They did not actually have any arch support or even much padding anywhere on the sole.  They were fashionable.  Their generic logo could be easily covered with an ambitious pant leg.  They were only $20.  I tried one on.  I tried on both.  Their soles were so perfectly flat that I almost felt like my forefoot was elevated.  Am I leaning backwards?  This was such a comfortable stance that I stood there for several seconds, just letting the balance of my feet bring balance into my crooked heart.

I was happy to give up $20 for those shoes.  They are everything I ever wanted in a pair of shoes for looks and for exercise.  They are perfect for protected minimalistic running because they are flat from heel to toe, have a wide forefoot area, and are very light weight.  They are perfect for “Elite-Fitness” because they have no cushion to squish and skew the wearer’s lifts, yet they still provide ample protection for box jumping, jump roping, wall-climbs, and minor gym related accidents.

If you are in the market for some gym shoes that still look good outside the gym, but only have $20 to spend, you don’t need to look any further than the Men’s Airspeed Demo 3.0 Street Sneakers from Walmart.  Right now, if you happen to wear size 7, you can order them online from walmart.com.

The discount leather at the heel tore at the beginning our long journey together, but the leather is not structurally contributive.