Received as a birthday present in 2005 by my sister, my Diesel Lawndale shoes have experienced a lot since that time. Before their time, my feet would share about even time between a four-year-old pair of Vans and a pair of Airwalk which I had been wearing since 1994. While I was at first a bit reluctant to take on a new pair of shoes, I did welcome the change.
The shoes have had a lot of ground underneath them. From the decades old rebuilt cobblestone roads of Kyoto on New Year’s Eve, to the base of Mt. Fuji — and they would have had the chance to climb the mountain if it weren’t for missing the seasonal closed gates by a few days. Redemption came in climbing Mt. Gozaisho. They’ve seen many late drunken nights walking miles and miles or aiming to ride a bicycle home from various karaoke bars, and they’ve walked the sacred Buddhist grounds at Todai-ji — sober. Though walking so much outside, they only once or twice set foot inside of the house as it’s customary to take off your shoes at the genkan, a habit that’s stuck with me. As a result, their laces have not been untied in years and they even underwent a period of time where the back lip was worn down as makeshift slippers to make for easier removal.
The constant wear and tear on them has had its affect of course. On each of the shoes there is a slowly expanding small hole where my big toe is, though it’s tough to notice especially since I wear black socks often. The tread on the bottoms is also wearing thin. It hasn’t gotten to the point of the Airwalks however, where I can’t wear them on rainy days as the bottom of my socks will get wet.
Nowadays the Diesels spend most of their time traversing corporate carpeted hallways. Their better days aren’t hopefully in the past, plans to visit Australia and go in the outback are ahead.