New Shoes!

There aren’t many things in this world better than the smell of new running shoes fresh out of the box. You unfold the tissue paper that covers the shoes, remove the wadded up balls of it from the toes of the shoes and you catch your first whiff of new running shoe. It’s fantastic, but do you know what’s even better than the smell of new running shoes? Actually buying new running shoes. Trust me they look at you kind of strange when you ask if you can smell several pairs and then just leave the store without buying any. Do you know what’s even better than buying new running shoes? You probably don’t because you’re not awesome like me. I’ll tell you what’s better than buying new running shoes: Being given a free pair of new running shoes to review on your blog. Pretty awesome huh? Do you know what’s even better than being given free shoes? Being given a new pair of the latest Pearl Izumi SyncroInfinity running shoes. (Syncro Infinity? syncroINFINITY? I can’t figure out which one is right, Pearl Izumi must be loving this right now.) Do you know why I keep phrasing everything as a question in this post? Me neither.

Receiving a free pair of Pearl Izumi running shoes is better than receiving any other brand because it’s as if Pearl Izumi is endorsing me as a runner. It’s as if they’re saying “Hey Vanilla, you’re not a jogger, you’re a runner, you run like an animal, you are our kind of people, we want you in our shoes, and not all those lame joggers who read your blog,” – personally I would be offended by that last statement if I was you guys.

Now you may think that me agreeing to review their shoes in exchange for a free pair is a conflict of interest. You may call my actions “selling out” or “whorish behavior” but I call it “shut up you’re just jealous!” I assure you that my review of the shoes will not be tainted by the fact that the super-duper, totally awesome, stupefyingly great company Pearl Izumi just gave me free running shoes. I will not allow it to impair my judgment.

I’ve only run in the shoes a couple of times, so I will save my review of their performance for another day but let me just say that these might be the coolest looking shoes that I’ve ever owned, and that’s saying something because I once owned a pair of grey dress sandals that I wore with grey socks (by the way, thanks for that Mom). I was fully expecting to receive the same running shoes that I’ve always run in, you know the kind; white mesh upper with a colorful stripe or two, some reflective material and a multi-colored sole (whoa, flashy!). So I was pleasantly surprised by the black and grey shoes that you see pictured. My favorite thing about the Pearl Izumi SyncroInfiinity is the snarling teeth on the back of the shoe (pictured right). They say to other runners, “back off man, I’m dangerous!” I feel b-b-b-b-bad to the bone when I run in them and that’s probably what Pearl Izumi was striving for, especially when you consider all their ads.