Shoes: no more little old ladies just in tennis shoes

What do women want? That’s the eternal question. And the eternal answer is shoes. They want shoes that are good-looking and comfortable, shoes that are used, not left in the closet as an offering to the gods of guilt.

Easy to say, hard to find, especially by older women who have given up high heels—instruments of torture—but who will never give up looking good. So where to look for shoes?

The comfort brands most commonly mentioned by my favorite older women are: Merrell, Mephisto, Ecco, New Balance, SAS, Clarks and Easy Spirit. Also mentioned are Nike, Dansk, Walking Cradles, Privo, Cole Haan, Seibel, Finn Comfort and Birkenstock. Some of these brands have perky style choices that do not remind one of orthotics and that can be worn with a slightly dressy outfit.

Of course, each of us has developed her own foot profile over the years, a little bump here, a tiny bunion-esque development there, so one shoe brand will not fit all. The smart thing to do is to try on and try on until it gets so trying that you need to take a mall break.

Those with problem feet will find all kinds of help at http://www.footsmart.com. There you can look up shoes by the kind of problem you may have—say no arches or high arches. They also have an interesting catalog, but if you order shoes and they don’t fit, you do have to pay the return postage. Phone: 800.707.9928.

Zappo’s: A place to sink your feet into

I am not responsible if you get a Zappo’s shoe habit by going far too often to http://www.zappos.com. Owned by Amazon, they have the same excellent customer service and you can return shoes that don’t fit free of charge, no questions asked. They have 51,000 kinds of shoes right now, so something should do you. 800.927.7671.

Both FootSmart and Zappo’s have helpful online customer reviews.

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