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Growing up, my best friend Clancy and I had many things in common. One of those things was our shoe size – we both had size 41 feet by the 5th grade. We hated our feet and swore we would get foot-shrinking surgeries together when we were old enough. Needless to say, shoe shopping was beyond embarrassing.
As we got older, our bodies grew into our foot sizes and we stopped dreaming of ways to shrink our feet. Today, we still both have very large feet but I face a problem Clancy doesn’t – I live in Hong Kong!
Living in Hong Kong with big feet is a big problem. A week or so after I moved to Hong Kong from the States, I had to conduct a very important interview with a designer and I didn’t have any cute shoes to wear. I figured this wouldn’t be a problem and decided to go shoe shopping before the interview. That decision was a huge mistake! I couldn’t find anything in my size. As the hours passed, I grew frantic and ended up buying a pair of too-small boots. I hobbled off to the interview with cramped toes.
My plight as a large-footed woman in Hong Kong continues two years later. I can’t tell you the number of times I have walked into a store, asked for my size, and been laughed at – literally laughed at! – by the store attendants. Sometimes I get lucky and find a large pair of 40s, but a 41 is damn near impossible to come by. Thankfully, I have found a few places that cater to my flappin’ pancakes’ needs, while still keeping it stylish (D.I.S on Hollywood Road being one of them), but those places are far and few between.
On behalf of all the women in Hong Kong with big feet, I demand an increase in the number of available, affordable, and stylish large shoes. We can’t live like this anymore!
Jackie is a silly American girl who loves eating good food, travelling and studying people and their cultures. Check out her travel blog The Amateur Explorer or email her with freelance enquiries at [email protected].
