It’s nearly impossible to only have one pair of shoes. What may be appropriate for a day of hiking is not going to work at a dinner party. Most of the time the variety is only form-based and situation specific. However, when it comes to activities such as sports or dancing, you want foot covering that serves a purpose, such as ballet shoes or cleats. There always seems to be a newer, better version of running shoes which are supposed to entice you to buy the latest gimmick. Even when we think we’ve seen it all, they come up with something new.

The last interesting thing I remember about running shoes was Shocks, which looked like a bunch of springs on the back of a shoe. Now the big deal is the Springblade from Adidas. These have 16 slanted ‘blades’ made of polymer that will give you the feeling of walking on springs. They’re going to be available on August 1st of this year at the price of $180, but you can’t tell me these don’t remind you of a grown-up version of those moon shoes you could play with as a kid.