Even though I’m a bloke, there are some typical blokey things I just don’t get.
I hate watching football in the pub, even though I’m a huge sports fan. It just doesn’t move me at all.
Cars a total mystery to me – as far as I’m concerned they’re a means to an end that get you from A to B.
And of all the male obsessions that I don’t understand is that of trainers.
I don’t mean trainers in a running round the park/gym sense, I’m talking about ‘fashion’ trainers. They’re the ones that aren’t white with a couple of flashes down them that people wear because they’re, ahem, cool.
No, they’re not! They’re an item of footwear that are designed for doing exercise in.
To my mind, making trainers ‘designer’ and ‘fashiony’ is akin to someone deciding that silk blouses would be a really good thing to wear if you wanted to run a marathon. You get my point?
The thing is, I really like shoes. I own around 15 pairs, which for a bloke is quite a lot. And I wear all of them.
Do I own any trainers? Yes, I have one pair of cross-trainers that are good for exercise classes and in the gym, and I have a pair of running shoes that I wear when I, very occasionally, go for a run.
Neither of these could remotely be construed as cool, fashionable and look good accompanied by a pair of blue jeans.
And the thing about trainers is that some people keep them in the box and never put them on. What? You spend £100 on a pair of ‘shoes’ and never wear them?
For god’s sake men, buy a pair of boots or something. They’ll probably last longer, even if you do wear them every day!
I was sitting at my desk last week when my much younger work colleague Charlotte came back from lunch in a state of high excitement.