Boots.

I like them.

I used to be a sneaker guy, Converse and Nike were my favourite brands.

Until this year when I came across this brand called Caterpillar (Cat) at a store called "Famous Brands" located at Capitol Centre. If you're Singaporean I'm sure you've seen it before. Yes, that was when I became somewhat fixated on boots.

They had quite a few very nice steel-toe boots there, tough things that protect your feet from getting pulverised when you accidentally drop heavy shit on them. Of course they're mainly work boots but that didn't prevent them from looking fucking awesome.

In the end, however, I chose a pair of Cat sneakers, which I heavily regretted a few weeks after. Sure they looked great, but they were also very uncomfortable. The shoes were too narrow for my rather broad feet, I could see the outline of my foot bulging against the side of the shoe, fucking blisters and shit, and while it was made of good quality leather, they didn't feel very tough at all. Granted, I might have laced it up a little too tight (my fault) but I wasn't entirely happy with my purchase.

I wore them to Taiwan with my friends and walked around in them, and they were really killing my feet, which were killing me. And then I chanced upon a very small, inconspicuous footwear store in Ximending, close to the hotel we were living in. By then it we were nearing the end of our holiday so naturally I didn't have much money left. They had nothing but boots everywhere, so I decided to take a closer look.

They Taiwanese are a very friendly bunch. They were also very hardworking. I explained to them that I was from overseas and that I didn't have a lot of money left to spend. It's ok, you can use your credit card, they said. I didn't have one. There were two pair of Caterpillars there that really caught my eye, they cost around 3500 and 5500NT (one SGD is roughly 20NT). I was down to only a few thousand, so I decided to leave, only to return a short while later, this time with full intention to purchase. I chose the 3500NT pair, not only because it was cheaper, but also because it was sturdier and didn't compromise in style. The other pair was a lot more attractive but I wasn't feeling very rich at the time.

And man were they comfortable as hell. They take sometime getting used to, especially if you've been wearing sneakers all your life, but afterwards, you know it's worth it.

Recently (in Singapore now) I was out looking for clothes when I happened upon another footwear store (think it was Royal Sporting House) selling Cats. I went in to take a look, but didn't see anything remotely close to the ones I was wearing, or even to the ones I saw in Taiwan. In fact most of them looked pretty darn ugly. Yeah, glad I got my Cats at Taiwan. Also saw a few pairs of Timberlands on the same day which looked really good. Now I know where to go when I need a new pair.