🛞 Shoes Are The New Tires
Trading car repairs for footwear
I’ll take a pair of Pikolinos over a set of Pirellis any day.
Everyone needs footwear, except for the barefoot enthusiasts who insist on walking through the world and even running without shoes. In my 20s, I paced a few miles with a gentleman in his 60s who told me this was his umteenth marathon running barefoot, only thick calluses between him and a road built for cars. We split ways when he picked up the pace, which was delightful and demoralizing. While barefoot enthusiasts may save on shoes, that money likely resurfaces in urgent care visits, physical therapy, and, hopefully, the occasional pedicure.
Spaniards are big fans of footwear. I’ll never forget the first few visits to my in-laws, arriving in the summer heat and immediately removing my shoes when entering their house. My mother-in-law couldn’t bear it and offered me some closed-toed slippers. I spent the day traveling, so my feet were enjoying the cold tiles, plus I had a fresh pedicure I wanted to show off. She loved the fun polish color but was concerned my feet would get cold (mind you, they lived in a beachy Mediterranean tourist town). I ended up buying a pair of flip flops to wear around their house which seemed to ease her mind as a hostess that her special guest wasn’t parading around barefoot.
Not Just a Family Thing
Years later, my Spanish teacher off-handedly said she never goes barefoot in her home, not even on the hottest summer days. Other Spanish friends have confirmed their discomfort with bare feet, preferring to wear socks, slippers, or even shoes at home. Since Spaniards tend to dress for the season, not for the weather, open-toed shoes like sandals are acceptable only during the warm months or special occasions. And podophobes rejoice: flip flops are strictly for the beach. Thankfully, bare feet are acceptable in yoga studios.
Fortunately, for those of us who want to wear the “right” shoes and have an unrequited love for heels, sneakers are an all-season option that go with everything in Europe. Just be sure to keep them clean—casual doesn’t mean sloppy.
Redefining ‘The Body Shop’
When preparing to move from the United States to Spain, I cut several transportation expenses from my budget. These were quickly replaced with other costs I didn’t see coming and wasn’t sure how to categorize. For example: is footwear transportation, fashion, preventative self-care, or all of the above?
Tires gave way to shoes. I’ll take a pair of Pikolinos over a set of Pirellis any day. Spaniards spend €185 per year on footwear, averaging about four new pairs a year. This is about the same as you’d spend on tires, but living without a car in Spain means I save about €200 per year that would otherwise go to tires.
Unlike buying clothes, which puts me in an existential crisis of not wanting to contribute to textile waste but also not wanting to wear last year’s white t-shirt stained yellow with sunscreen and sweat, I can easily justify buying new shoes. Every time I debate whether or not to get a new pair, I always justify the purchase with: “This is part of your annual transportation cost.”
New tires every four years: €750-1,000
New shoes every four years: €745-1,000
Annual savings: €200
Gas gave way to a metro and bus pass. At €6,10 for 10 trips or €21,90 for an unlimited pass, my bank account and I are deeply grateful not to have to budget $100+ for gasoline every month. Transit prices in Madrid lowered to offset rising costs after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but they could go up after June 30th.
Gasoline: $100-150 per month
Bus and metro pass: $25 per month
Annual savings: $1,800
Oil changes gave way to physical therapy. It’s not fun to rearrange your schedule to sit under a laser for 10 consecutive days, and even less fun to do weirdly effective exercises at home. But every once in a while, a massage is prescribed, and that beats auto-shop waiting room coffee any day. Or doing an oil change at home.
Oil change: $200-250 per year
Physical therapy: $200 per year
Annual savings: $0
Car insurance gave way to private health insurance. Most newcomers to Spain are required to carry private health insurance without co-pays. Due to long delays, some Spaniards skip the public healthcare system and seek private physical therapy to treat lingering pain or an injury quickly. Car insurance in the United States is more or less the exact cost as private health insurance in Spain.
Car insurance in the US: $1,500 per year
Private health insurance in Spain: $800 per year
Annual savings: $700
Car maintenance gave way to shoe repair. The art of shoe repair is alive and well in Spain. You can have a pair of shoes resoled or uppers repaired at a zapatería (shoe shop) within a few days at very reasonable prices. Compared with the shoe repair shop I frequented in Eugene, staffed by talented, leather-clad Harley Davidson motorcycle gang members who quoted eight weeks and a hefty sum to repair a boot sole, this is heaven on Earth and good for the planet.
Car maintenance in the US: $1,000 per year
Shoe repair in Spain: $50 per year
Annual savings: $950
Moving to Spain from the United States has shifted the burden of transportation from an auto body to my human body. It’s also saved me approximately $3,650 in yearly transportation costs, gets me out walking more, incentivizes preventative care, and hopefully lessens my carbon footprint.
Have you ever stressed about what to wear or which shoes to pack for a trip? Have you felt the physical and financial effects of getting around without a car? Share your thoughts in the comments!
I loved how you summed this up! I loved the ability to walk almost everywhere in Spain or hop on the Metro.
And come to think of it, my Spanish friends and family were never barefoot either in the house…that’s interesting. 🧐
Will take shoes any day!