Piloti Follow up

This is a quick post following up on my original post about the Piloti Prototipo.  When I purchased my first pair at the Italian Concourso in Carmel back in 2007, I loved them.  I wore them everywhere, even with khakis and slacks to work.  The Prototipo were shoes designed for auto enthusiast, but made to be comfortable for daily wear.

In fact, I raved so much about these shoes that my SO decided later on to purchase one herself.  I also was fortunate enough to have my SO purchase a new pair as a present to replace the original one I had that was falling apart.

Today, these two pairs of shoes have been relegated to the lonely activity as our primary dog walking shoes. Why?

I'm not sure what happened.  The new pair I ordered are the exact same style, size, and even color.  But for some reason, the new pair hurts my feet.  One example: I brought my pair of Piloti Prototipo on my trip to Barcelona thinking I can use this as my primary shoe for walking around the city and visiting the sites.  Wrong.  The shoes created blisters that caused me to not be able to walk for a day.  Instead, when my feet recovered, I wore my Puma sneakers and had no problems for the remainder of the trip.  My SO also had the same issue, she complained that the shoes don't break in, and it hurts her feet.  In addition, they are no longer water resistant like before.

The only interesting part of wearing these shoes is sometimes random bystanders will point them out and use it as a conversation start, as  people "in the know" understand that only people into cars would have patronized this brand.  That novelty has since worn off as I'm not really one to talk about the cars I have owned in the past.  That's what this mainly anonymous blog is for. ;-)

I'm not exactly sure what the difference is between the old pair and the newer one.  Maybe the company decided to change their manufacturing process, maybe they decided to move their production to China in order to increase profits and save on costs.  I really don't know.  All I do know is I'm no longer raving about these pair of shoes.

I'm actually looking forward to the day where these shoes wear out, so I have an excuse to throw them away and never again purchase a replacement pair.  Since I walk 2-miles a day to and from my office, maybe I'll start wearing them so they will wear out sooner, and reserve my Puma sneakers for when I really need them, like long walks exploring a new city.