{"id":8406,"date":"2015-02-26T04:00:15","date_gmt":"2015-02-26T09:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/?p=8406"},"modified":"2020-08-09T13:06:26","modified_gmt":"2020-08-09T17:06:26","slug":"guest-blog-newtoboots-attorney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/?p=8406","title":{"rendered":"Guest Blog: NewToBoots Attorney"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a guest blog post written by someone with whom I have been having a cordial email exchange.<\/em><\/p>\n

Last summer, I stumbled upon BHD’s website and later, his blog. I wrote to him to ask what boots he may recommend to wear at a wedding being held in Texas in which I was going to be a groomsman. I live in a state in the eastern U.S., where boot-wearing is uncommon among men in professional positions, or even on weekends with casual clothes. Yes, I am among those that BHD has targeted as the “sneaker-wearing Dads” who wear “dorky dress shoes” at the office.<\/p>\n

But I have what I thought was a valid reason for doing so: I am a trial attorney, and often appear in court. I must wear a suit and dress the part.<\/p>\n

Back to the boots issue.
\n
\nI thought that a “western wedding” in Texas required the men in the wedding party to wear boots. In fact, the groom pretty much ordered me to — “bring your boots,” he said.<\/p>\n

What boots, I asked myself? I never owned or wore boots in my life.<\/p>\n

Like guys do, I went on-line to see what boots men wore with suits and to weddings. That’s when BHD’s “wearing boots” website<\/a> came up rather high on the results. I looked at his “boots and suits” page and thought, “okay — those boots aren’t wild or crazy. I can probably pull it off.”<\/p>\n

I would not have to rent a tux since the wedding attire was not formal. The other men, including the groom, were wearing suits. Suits? Not a problem. I’ve got a lot of suits to choose from. So since my expenses for my attire were minimal, I thought that I could buy a cheap pair of boots and wear them for the wedding, then donate them afterwords. Heck, me, wear boots back home? No way. (I thought.)<\/p>\n

I began emailing BHD about what he suggested in my situation. “Basic, simple, black cowboy boots would do.” He gave me suggestions and even some links to look at. I bought a pair of black dressy Tony Lama boots on sale. They arrived quickly. I tried them on.<\/p>\n

…then panicked…<\/p>\n

The boots didn’t seem to fit right. They were loose in the heel. When I walked in them, the high heel made me walk funny. I didn’t like the feel of boots at all.<\/p>\n

I communicated more with BHD. He assured me that what I was feeling was quite normal. He said that most men who wear sneakers and dress shoes are very used to low heel height, and a heel an inch higher on a cowboy boot throws a lot of new boot wearers off, or off balance. He also said that heel slippage is common, but once the boots are broken in, it will stop.<\/p>\n

BHD recommended that I become more accustomed to wearing boots and breaking them in by wearing them for at least several hours a day for a few weeks before the Texas wedding. <\/p>\n

But where would I wear boots? I couldn’t imagine wearing them to work in the courthouse or in my office.<\/p>\n

Once again, BHD encouraged me to try. He suggested that I wear the boots while commuting to work and walking into the office, and then bring a gym bag with regular shoes to change into if I felt like I needed to change footwear. He said, “notice on the subway that a lot of men wear sneakers and carry a bag with shoes in it?” He was right. A lot of men do that. In fact, my wife does that almost every day because she does not want to wear heels on the subway.<\/p>\n

One day, I pulled on my new boots with my suit and went to work. I had meetings and did work around the office. But on that first day of boot-wearing, I decided to change to shoes when I went out to lunch. Oh well, I wore boots for a half day. BHD would be proud. (He was.)<\/p>\n

The next few days that week, I wore my boots into the office and changed to shoes when I went to court.<\/p>\n

One day, though, I had those boots on and got called into court by a partner of my firm. “Come quickly.”<\/p>\n

Without thinking about my footwear, I made my way to court and it was only at the end of the day that I realized that I wore boots to court. What’s more, no one said a thing. <\/p>\n

BHD told me that most people wouldn’t notice, or if they did, they might compliment the boots but not question my sanity for wearing them. Again, he was right.<\/p>\n

By the time I got to Texas and went to the wedding, I felt like an experienced boot-wearing man. I looked around and saw that most of the men were very comfortable in boots. Even on the dance floor. My wife even remarked about how comfortable I seemed to be in boots.<\/p>\n

Now, months later, I continue to wear those boots to the office, to court, and casually on weekends. That’s not to say that I have abandoned dress shoes or sneakers (as much as BHD would want me to do so). But I am equally as comfortable in boots as I am in shoes. BHD’s response when I told him that was “yippie!” I thought that was funny.<\/p>\n

So this attests to the fact that even grown male attorneys on the East Coast can overcome concerns about wearing boots with a suit and in an office or even a courthouse. No sweat!<\/p>\n

————-
\nBHD comment: I really appreciate my friend for writing this guest blog which has been a month in development. But what’s more important — I have a new “convert” to attest that men can wear boots with dress clothes and in public, including a law firm, and enjoy it!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a guest blog post written by someone with whom I have been having a cordial email exchange. Last summer, I stumbled upon BHD’s website and later, his blog. I wrote to him to ask what boots he may … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guest-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8406\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}