In April I found the holy grail of spring shoes: a pair of Skechers that were incredibly cute, paired just fine with my summer dresses, and that were built to support the food perfectly.  Unfortunately, they were just a little too tight in the right heel. I bought them anyway, assuming that once I broke the shoes in, the problem would take care of itself and by the beginning of June, I could be happily walking around lakes in my fabulous yet practical shoes.

The shoes did not break. In fact, I broke first. A gaping hole in my heel just killed me, got aggravated by a cheap pair of crocs I had to buy on the fly to help with gardening my mother’s property, and voila! I spent the month of May in little more than flip-flops. Not to be deterred (these are some really cute shoes) I sought out the solution you see above: the shoe stretcher. I used it in concert with this spray designed to soften leather:

I’m averting my eyes because I’m very concerned as to what’s in that spray, but combined with the stretcher – it does seem to work, if you’re willing to leave it overnight. My shoe doesn’t take a single bite out of my heel now, and we may have another round of “breaking in” yet.