Etsy Vintage.....Shoes??? Ick.

~ Taking a Quick Break From Jewelry to say... ~

I know there are people who feel squeamish about buying earrings that may have been worn before, like modeling them in pictures.  I understand it's illegal in some states to even return earrings to the store where they were purchased.  I am not entirely sure why, since ear piercings are healed (aren't they??) and it's no more "dirty" than, say, wearing a ring (you never know where that hand has been! LOL).   Or wearing used clothing---it can be washed or dry cleaned.

Earrings are made out of metal, and you can easily disinfect metal posts with alcohol, for example.  Maybe even just good ol' soap and water.

But etsy's "Fashion" email today included, among other things like a pine cone crown* (??), pairs of vintage hiking boots and shoes that are previously worn.

WHAT THE......???????

How about these 'vintage' shoes?!

How on earth is that sanitary??  Why would ANYONE want to put their feet into boots or shoes that contain who-knows-what kinds of potential fungus or viruses or bacteria or blood or other bodily fluids??  You can't disinfect shoes!!  (Although I read that you can put stinky sneakers in the freezer for a couple of days to kill bacteria...uh, no thanks!)  Maybe viruses only live on hard surfaces for a few hours, but spores can live indefinitely until they're "reactivated" by moisture.  And the inside lining of shoes isn't a "hard surface" anyway--it's soft and porous, ick.   And not only that, but someone else's foot "broke in" those boots or shoes so they conformed to THEIR feet, not yours, so...???   I'm not even going to think about how gross this is any more...

...except I'm thinking, how is is this any less horrible than buying used, dirty underwear that can't be laundered for the purpose of wearing?  Would you ever think of putting that next to your body?   Seriously.

In shoe stores when I was a kid, you'd have to wear something on your feet before trying any shoes on, and even that seemed so icky to me.

I can't be the only person who thinks buying USED SHOES or BOOTS is awful, sickening, disgusting, unsanitary and unsafe!?!!!   BLECHHHH.  No thank you! 


*Update:  someone actually purchased that "tiara" made out of glued-together pine cones today, for $55 plus $10 shipping!  (Cone head, anyone?!)   I guess there is a market for anything!  Maybe I should make a matching one for a guy to wear as a pine cone beard for $55!!  Yeah, no.


*** ...And now, back to jewelry! ***