A small delivery showed up today from Fort Belvedere and suddenly my closet started acting a little more sophisticated. Picked up a pair of grenadine ties in navy and burgundy—rich texture, classic colors, and just enough depth to make even a simple white shirt feel intentional. These things have the kind of quiet elegance that doesn’t scream for attention… but absolutely expects to be noticed. Now the real challenge begins: deciding which sports coat gets promoted to first-string duty this week. Somehow a man buys two ties and immediately starts standing in front of the mirror like he’s preparing for a board meeting at 10 and a cigar lounge reservation at 7. Any pairing suggestions?

You can go down a number of rabbit-holes on the topic of shoes and foot health, as I have in recent years, but the good news is that traditional marketing blather disguised as medical advice is rapidly giving way to actual science. Much of this research comes purely from a sports-science perspective, but we are seeing more and more general-purpose, science based, foot health advice making its way into the mainstream. A couple of bottom lines: - Anatomical toe boxes combined with zero-drop heels typically promote increased foot health by allowing the foot to function as intended. - Heel and mid-foot shoe structure - often labeled as support - is important for high-impact performance activities but bad for everyday wear - as the overly restricted foot movement promotes atrophy and degraded foot health. The question that needs answering is why, for so long, have so many people been so wrong about foot health? To answer this, let's start at the beginning... For millenia, all shoes were anatomical - they were literally custom made to fit each individual's feet. And they typically bore little resemblance to the modern dress shoe. So, from where did the look of modern dress shoes come - with narrow, tapered toe boxes and soles that artificially lift your heel 2-3 centimeters off the ground? Both of those aspects were born - in different ways - from the simple fact that those aspects were NOT functional; those aspects made those shoes not fit for walking and working. Heels, of course, came from riding boots. Narrow, tapered toe boxes came from the medieval, aristocratic, "clown" shoes with absurdly long toes. People who wore these styles effectively wore them as a symbol that they were not required to use their feet. Because they weren't required to use their feet for traveling or working, they were allowed to wear footwear specifically designed to not perform those functions. It was literally a choice to wear unhealthy footwear, as a symbol of wealth. These traditions were compounded by the advent of mass manufacturing and the use of "standard" last patterns. Unfortunately, these lasts typically weren't designed to promote foot health but, instead, to be as easy and inexpensive as possible to manufacture.

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