SKECH-Y INTEGRITY

Photo from here

We've are a "No Skechers" household. My footwear boycott began about 12 years ago. I had bought a pair of Skechers flip flops and they broke within a week, quite inconveniently while I was down in Soho. I cabbed it back uptown directly to Skechers on the Upper West Side. I wasn't amused. I left with a new pair of flip flops.

Two weeks later one flip flop broke again. I was starting to get a complex about the way I walked. I was also starting to get angry about shoes failing at totally inopportune times. I returned to the store.

"You know what, I just want my money back," I said, adding in my mind only, "And $30 for cab fare."

"Our policy is store credit only," someone replied.

"Is your policy also to sell shoes that break twice prematurely for no reason at all," I might have responded.

"I'm sorry," someone said insincerely.

"I'd like your corporate customer service number and address," I said. My mother is a pro at complaint letter writing.

They wouldn't give it to me. But they did give me another credit which I should have torn up in a dramatic exit. But I didn't. It was then that I vowed never to buy Skechers again for me or my children. And I stood my ground though at times it was hard especially at the mall when my kids looked at the sparkly light up shoes with desire.

Alas, even though I am pretty good about letting things slide, I held onto the Skecher grudge and then this week was kind of happy when the company got slapped with a class action suit for making false claims about certain shoes.

Karma.