As a long-time 9 & a half (UK sizing, no US upsizing here) I sympathise, particularly with a wide foot that means having to go up a size and suffer that toe curl-up. But I still remember a time, when shoe shops dotted the country, right next to butchers and fruit shops where you could get a half sizing. Bata Bullets is all I can say to any Kiwi over 40 (50?) to remind them of style and choice back then however. Locally made. Then Big Shoe kicked in (Warehouse, #1 Shoes, Rebel Sport). You could now get cheaper sneakers, in a bewildering array of styles and colours. Just not a half size. Not enough room on the ships bringing them all in. Sometimes we get more, but often end up with less, like shoes that fitted probably, brought from a store that knew its shoe game, because it was the only game they knew. I appreciate a lot of what we have now in Aotearoa, but I do sometimes miss Old Zealand, walking to town for new shoes that you knew would fit an in-betweener. I think this just turned into a lament from an early Gen Xer.
Hi Graham! Wide here too! I can't even deal with most Nikes, and with the extra toe-curl fear. Funny about globalization, isn't it. Every MORE comes with a LESS. So often I beat my shopping head against NZ's relative market isolation (why are freakin' Casio watches, the basic paving stone of global plastic everything, so rare and expensive here???) And then I go back to the US and feel a visceral, physical vertigo at the array of meaningless choice and waste and false promise. I don't know how to find the balance. I'm a late Gen Xer, myself. Only a whiff of true pre-globalization in my memory. But laments for that which has gone before seem a natural part of this chapter, no? Thanks for sharing!
And I googled the Batas just to see what they looked liked. Big rubber toes! Bata is still around, drifting in the global flotsam. When I live in LatAm in the '00s they were everywhere. Loved me some cheap Bata boots in Bolivia!
Black and Gold! Were they a special edition? The image that is burnt in my mind is that having Bullets meant that you were cool AND you conformed. As reinforced by the TV ad aimed at kids: https://youtube.com/shorts/FM9GmcKe-yM?si=85QDOb5tZVBDv1-l
Adorable ad. "Wear the same sneaker as eveyone else" is the antithesis of all thing American. Even if we do it all the time, we have to believe our shoes set us apart!
There was a time in NZ Dan when fitting in with everyone else was very important. Think it was where a lot of our Tall Poppy syndrome came from. This ad is seared in my brain from that time.
Yeah right?? A year on I've forgotten the drama. They're just daily wears. I don't ever tie them. Bedroom slippers for the world.
Looking back on it I've decided the Nike ad worship was all about the poetry?? That's a Blake quote under Jordan. Poetry and being a dude. A nice black and white match to your Z Gallerie abstract impressionist piece!!
I’ve not heard New Zealanders call sneakers ‘trainers’’. Are you sure you’re talking to actual New Zealanders? I’ve lived here half a century and not heard that. Gumboots and jandals yes, trainers no.
Hi Janet! My mistake. I have definitely heard trainers here but that must’ve been somewhere in the UK/NZ blur I thought I had sorted out. Obviously not! Rosie called that out too, see comment above. I’m out here learning. Thanks for reading!
Ah consumerism - I'm surprised the US doesn't offer 1/4 sizes!!
Don't know where you're shopping Dan (and maybe it's just women's sizes) but 1/2 sizes are available here if they're available elsewhere - it's the "Do you want black or black"? bizzo that gets to me. Anyway I much prefer the comfort of sneakers (with anything/anywhere/anytime) to the aching seemingly never-ending breaking-in period of the more trendy Doc Martens.
Pat Menzies & Platyus both skip half sizes in a lot of mainstream sneakers. And yes the colorways are limited too! I am loving my new pair of Docs, though :) I like sneakers fine and wear plenty but I think in my heart I am a boot man. Wellington's a boot town, too, i think. In soul and weather both.
Too cool for school! But Docs don’t come in half sizes and for me they are useless walking through the bush and mush with the pooch. That said I love my 10 year old (finally broken in) red cordovan lace-up doc boots - great for gallery openings!
You ARE cool, Dan, you don't have to bow your head to the Man, just pirate the Disney films like you pirated that picture of Cinderella.
Size 41 over here which I believe is 7.5 in American, but by the way I have NEVER heard a Kiwi say 'trainers', that's an English-from-England word, we say 'sneakers'.
Hey! I stole that pic from National Geographic who paid Alamy to artfully screen grab a classic film fair and square! Damn about trainers. I pride myself on having a better ear than that.
Thanks, Rosie. Rather enjoying the quest to figure out what 'NZ cool' is in my own nationalized brain. Lucky me I've got a wizard to show me the way!
As a long-time 9 & a half (UK sizing, no US upsizing here) I sympathise, particularly with a wide foot that means having to go up a size and suffer that toe curl-up. But I still remember a time, when shoe shops dotted the country, right next to butchers and fruit shops where you could get a half sizing. Bata Bullets is all I can say to any Kiwi over 40 (50?) to remind them of style and choice back then however. Locally made. Then Big Shoe kicked in (Warehouse, #1 Shoes, Rebel Sport). You could now get cheaper sneakers, in a bewildering array of styles and colours. Just not a half size. Not enough room on the ships bringing them all in. Sometimes we get more, but often end up with less, like shoes that fitted probably, brought from a store that knew its shoe game, because it was the only game they knew. I appreciate a lot of what we have now in Aotearoa, but I do sometimes miss Old Zealand, walking to town for new shoes that you knew would fit an in-betweener. I think this just turned into a lament from an early Gen Xer.
Hi Graham! Wide here too! I can't even deal with most Nikes, and with the extra toe-curl fear. Funny about globalization, isn't it. Every MORE comes with a LESS. So often I beat my shopping head against NZ's relative market isolation (why are freakin' Casio watches, the basic paving stone of global plastic everything, so rare and expensive here???) And then I go back to the US and feel a visceral, physical vertigo at the array of meaningless choice and waste and false promise. I don't know how to find the balance. I'm a late Gen Xer, myself. Only a whiff of true pre-globalization in my memory. But laments for that which has gone before seem a natural part of this chapter, no? Thanks for sharing!
And I googled the Batas just to see what they looked liked. Big rubber toes! Bata is still around, drifting in the global flotsam. When I live in LatAm in the '00s they were everywhere. Loved me some cheap Bata boots in Bolivia!
Man, don't get Aotearovians started on Bata Bullets! Mine were black & gold
Black and Gold! Were they a special edition? The image that is burnt in my mind is that having Bullets meant that you were cool AND you conformed. As reinforced by the TV ad aimed at kids: https://youtube.com/shorts/FM9GmcKe-yM?si=85QDOb5tZVBDv1-l
Adorable ad. "Wear the same sneaker as eveyone else" is the antithesis of all thing American. Even if we do it all the time, we have to believe our shoes set us apart!
There was a time in NZ Dan when fitting in with everyone else was very important. Think it was where a lot of our Tall Poppy syndrome came from. This ad is seared in my brain from that time.
Not sure! I was only about six, I chiefly remember the velcro
Ah Velcro! Late-stage Bata Bullets. Lucky you!
to watch Pirates of the Caribbean, you must become a pirate of the Pacific. Ride the high cyber seas, commandeer content booty.
I order precious trinkets shipped all over the US, to be piled on the beach and waiting when my ship returns!
you're right - i CANNOT ABIDE a too-big shoe! :) and i had forgotten about that poster in your room, but bam, that image just hit me between the eyes.
Such an amazing photo
Yeah right?? A year on I've forgotten the drama. They're just daily wears. I don't ever tie them. Bedroom slippers for the world.
Looking back on it I've decided the Nike ad worship was all about the poetry?? That's a Blake quote under Jordan. Poetry and being a dude. A nice black and white match to your Z Gallerie abstract impressionist piece!!
I’ve not heard New Zealanders call sneakers ‘trainers’’. Are you sure you’re talking to actual New Zealanders? I’ve lived here half a century and not heard that. Gumboots and jandals yes, trainers no.
Hi Janet! My mistake. I have definitely heard trainers here but that must’ve been somewhere in the UK/NZ blur I thought I had sorted out. Obviously not! Rosie called that out too, see comment above. I’m out here learning. Thanks for reading!
Sandshoes we used to call them.
This is the correct Gen X answer. That's what I knew them as until my wife came along in the 90s with her interpretation.
Really? For sneakers? I’ve never heard that before. Cool!
Funny how words fade away. Bring sandshoes back!
Ah consumerism - I'm surprised the US doesn't offer 1/4 sizes!!
Don't know where you're shopping Dan (and maybe it's just women's sizes) but 1/2 sizes are available here if they're available elsewhere - it's the "Do you want black or black"? bizzo that gets to me. Anyway I much prefer the comfort of sneakers (with anything/anywhere/anytime) to the aching seemingly never-ending breaking-in period of the more trendy Doc Martens.
Pat Menzies & Platyus both skip half sizes in a lot of mainstream sneakers. And yes the colorways are limited too! I am loving my new pair of Docs, though :) I like sneakers fine and wear plenty but I think in my heart I am a boot man. Wellington's a boot town, too, i think. In soul and weather both.
Too cool for school! But Docs don’t come in half sizes and for me they are useless walking through the bush and mush with the pooch. That said I love my 10 year old (finally broken in) red cordovan lace-up doc boots - great for gallery openings!
10.5 as well. Sigh
A lonely, floppy-footed road we must walk.
You ARE cool, Dan, you don't have to bow your head to the Man, just pirate the Disney films like you pirated that picture of Cinderella.
Size 41 over here which I believe is 7.5 in American, but by the way I have NEVER heard a Kiwi say 'trainers', that's an English-from-England word, we say 'sneakers'.
Hey! I stole that pic from National Geographic who paid Alamy to artfully screen grab a classic film fair and square! Damn about trainers. I pride myself on having a better ear than that.
Thanks, Rosie. Rather enjoying the quest to figure out what 'NZ cool' is in my own nationalized brain. Lucky me I've got a wizard to show me the way!