Shoe Alternatives

I teach. As a special education teacher, I walk a lot. Because I walk a lot, my feet (and the ground) literally eat through my shoes. All I wear are ballet flats since heels higher than two inches eventually lead to me wearing flip flops for half the day. And... I prefer that my ballet flats be leather in nude or black. I'd been wanting to actually spend a real amount of money on some good shoes since the last two pairs of nude ballet flats only survived about six months each. Granted, I bought both pairs on sale, but neither pair was made well enough to withstand my Olympic Cross-country distance of a class schedule. So... I eventually found a shoe that meets all my criteria, but the price is not generally what I would pay for... anything. This shoe is the Tory Burch Eddie ballet flat seen below.

Yeah... so... this shoe is nearly $200. And while it is super comfortable and comes from a trendy designer, I'm just not willing to come up out my pockets like that for some shoes... that are going to get ate up too. To get these shoes, I tried bidding on a pair on Ebay... and that was a total joke because the person who got them paid $144 + $10 (for shipping) on a "never" used pair of shoes. My bidding price stopped at $95 and then I proceeded to find a cheaper alternative. My mom suggested that I try Dillards, and I did... I checked online and... Lo and behold! I was able to find a nearly identical pair of tan, leather ballet flats made by Antonio Melani for only $60 (seen below)!

I called my local store, but they did not carry them, so I called the Perimeter location (20 mins away). The associate put the only pair of 6.5 tan shoes on hold... THE ONLY PAIR... and I drove down and got them right away. They are just as comfortable and fit just as the Tory Burch flats for only a third of the price. I ended up getting two pair: tan and black. If they'd had more, I would've gotten them too as reserves for when these no longer will do.