Life Outside of Bean-Dom!
The Unnecessary Struggles in the Pursuit of the Perfect Boot!
As most of you may know by now, I’m still pretty new to the New England area, and thus, I am in need of a pair of good winter boots. In the south, Ugg boots are about as warm and rugged as one would need. But up here in the harsh Maine winters, something of A LOT more substance is needed, as I’ve discovered.
I decided many months ago, long before I need a pair of boots, that I was going to get the end-all be all of boots, the L.L. Bean ‘Bean Boot’. Seems like everyone has them and they wear them for everything from shoveling the front walk to perusing the mall. Scrolling through the website I found the pair, the women’s 10-inch, shearling-lined bean boot in black/black. I was so excited to find a pair in all black as that is the color I wear every day. In case you are wondering, the following link will show you which ones I’m referring to.
http://www.llbean.com/llb/shop/43281?feat=513860-GN3&page=women-s-bean-boots-by-l-l-bean-reg-10-quot-shearling-lined
So I decided as soon as I can purchase them I will, and being as we’re so close to the flagship store in Freeport, I thought, why not go there first to try them on? Unfortunately, the soonest I could go up there was the day after Christmas (since I spent all my funds on family and friends gifts, and my mother sent me an L.L. Bean gift card.) and you can guess what I encountered when I arrived. Yup, sold out! Not just in the black/black, but in every boot in my size. Damn my average size foot! I was shocked, and beyond irritated that this multi-billion dollar company ran out of their signature item! What is going on here? In their defense, the sales rep I was so fortunate to speak to (he was very rude, but that’s another story) said that this was their biggest year yet! Exciting for you, but terrible for me! I decided to try on the men’s boot just to see how they felt, and while they fit in the size, they were very wide in the leg, so that just wouldn’t work.
I decided to take this as a learning experience and make a mental note to check the L. L. Bean website every other day until the boots are in stock. For now, I really need some quality boots if I want to keep my toes this winter. The only thing I could think to do was check Google. I was able to narrow my search down to black/black women’s winter boots and was able to find these:
http://www.sorel.com/womens-winter-fancy-tall-boot-NL2021.html
They’re absolutely perfect, right? They are very similar to the Bean Boot, which is what I wanted in the first place. I tried on the short version at Cabela’s (shhh, don’t tell Bean!) and they are even more comfortable than the bean boot. I know, I know, it’s blasphemy! But ya know I’m really excited to have found what I like, and it’s in stock. Sorel looks like they have tons of great products, and excellent reviews. And who knows, this could be the start of a new boot trend. Maybe not, but I like them!