Fridays are known where I work as “casual Friday.” Most guys wear jeans, polo shirts, and sneakers. I take advantage of the unwritten rule that it is okay to wear jeans to work on Fridays, but along with the jeans, I decided to wear my Lucchese Classic “blue jeans” cowboy boots to work. I work in a professional office. Most other men wear drab, dull, dress shoes on most days, and sneakers on Fridays. Not me–always booted.
These boots, though, are noticeable because of their predominant blue color, with white inlays and black overlays. Not that I would care if anyone said anything, but I conducted an experiment.
I am known not to wear a necktie, except on rare occasions when I have a special meeting. But the day on which I wore those blue/white/black cowboy boots, I also wore a dress shirt and a blue leather tie with a pair of dark black jeans.
Yep, as I thought, most people noticed the tie and said something about it. Only one person — a woman — said, “those are snazzy-looking boots!” The men either noticed the boots and did not say anything, or were more focused on the tie business and did not say anything about the boots. I took a lot of good-natured ribbing about wearing a tie on “casual Friday.” Remarks like, “are you briefing [the big cheese]?” or “important lunch date?” or “presenting again?” were more common. And the tie being made of leather and not silk? No one said a thing.
Moral of the story: if you are concerned about what people may say about a pair of boots you may wear, then throw them off from looking down to looking up — wear a tie. Scare them (LOL! — that’s true in my case!)
Life is short: wear boots to work with dress clothes.
