it's gotta be the shoes

i need some sneakers. i packed a little light on the way over here and have found that i'm down to 2 pairs of shoes: my bad ass Old Navy slip-ons, which are just about ready to be trashed and my formerly squeaky clean gym-only Nikes, the more comfy of the two for all the creeping i'm doing around the city.
right, time to go buy some shoes....
editor's note> i am fully aware & apologize that these posts are trending towards the equivalent of a Seinfeld episode.
"what did you do today?"
"oh not much, went out to buy some shoes."
"awesome, that's another blog post."

anyway, i was told by a source that the place to go for shoes in Hong Kong is Mong Kok (yes, it sounds like it reads...get the giggles out now). now this source (who will remain nameless) suggested that the actually spot to get these shoes was super easy to find...."they are street vendors, the shoes are on the sidewalk...you can't miss them". thanks honey. seems simple enough.

MTR to Mong Kok, and i kid you not, i spent probably close to an hour staring towards the sidewalk as i dodged the foot traffic. no shoes. lots of people with pamphlets and shoe shining vendors, but no shoes. hmmm. i did come across a huge street market, full of stalls and everything you could ever imagine for sale....so figured this was it. another 15 mins or so looking back and forth through the plush toys and Man U jerseys, and yes, there were a few pair of shoes scattered throughout, but i knew this def wasn't the intended destination.

about to give up hope and abstain from any blogging for the day, i came across an actual shoe store...like a proper shop with walls and shelves. hmmm. had a quick look around, then out to the street to find yet another proper store. well, god damn, if there weren't shoe stores as far as the eye could see. mission accomplished.

totally not what i was expecting and incredibly confusing at the same time. i believe there are only 2 actual shoe franchises, and yet they both have multiple storefronts on the strip to the point where everything really started to look the same....and i believe in all my excitement, i got turned around so much i think i visited the same stores a few times over....
editor's note> one of these franchises just happens to be called Toronto Sports. No kidding.

in the end, i sadly didn't even buy a pair. shopping fail. alas, shoe mecca aside, i have a 30% off coupon to the New Balance store and the unemployed need to be savvy. sounds like a bit of a blog fail as well, doesn't it. i will step it up a bit.