Take a look at these shoes. Fugly, aren't they? They look like the bastard offspring of an espadrille and a deck shoe - neither of which managed to avoid a few slaps from the ugly stick in their production.
Now, what if I told you that by buying a pair of these £25 fugly shoes you would be ensuring that a third world child would get a free pair just like them to wear on its otherwise bare feet. Good idea isn't it?
And herein lies my dilemma. Because although giving a poor child a pair of shoes to wear, is a laudable and charitable thing to do, it still does not take away from the fact that these shoes are... not nice to look at. They look like rejects from grandpas old slipper pile. And that doesn't make want to buy them. At all. Which, I guess, makes me a bad person.
Thing is, I don't want to buy fugly shoes, that I will never wear, just because the action of buying the shoe will eventually go to a charitable end. That, to my mind, is not the point of shoe buying. I buy shoes, mostly because I think they're lovely, because I think they'll look good on my feet or look good with an outfit, for the sheer hell of owning another pretty pair.
So what to do? Well here's a suggestion: buy shoes because you like them. Then, if you're feeling charitable, go to any of the following, and buy stuff that makes a real, practical difference to people's lives:
Save the children
Cows n Things
Oxfam shop
Better yet, sponsor a child and provide them with food, clean water, education and healthcare. Then, maybe one day when they're all grown up, they'll be able to buy a pair of pretty shoes all by themselves.
And in other news... Shoe Studio are offering 20 per cent off any of their shoes until June 9. Just use promo code: FF20 at the the checkout.
