Shoephoria

one's feet experiencing a feeling of well-being or elation as a result of shoes worn/'shü'fOr-E-&/ [noun]

Standing in Macy's flagship store in Herald Square unexpectedly in the middle of a very advantageous sale event (around 35% off), the shoe department called out. With only a pair of casual black shoes and a pair of dress brown shoes, my foot fashion was severely limited. Searching out a pair of casual brown shoes, the ease, price and selection drove me to consider adding a pair of dress black shoes to the fleet.

Now, the new brown shoes were definitely comfy, and the black ones shorn at the time were okay but nowhere approaching new faves. So, setting out in search off nice black shoes I found myself surrounded by a mix of mostly way-too-fashion-forward-for-my-comfort and weren't-those-carried-by-Buster-Brown shoes. Until one pair called out to me: traditional, well made, yet carrying a certain sense of style.

Slipping on each shoe, I immediately sensed the difference, as though the shoes had been personally crafted for my feet. Only when I had worn my dress brown shoes (an expensive purchase) had I felt this feeling. As though cushioned by a cloud and wrapped in warm cloth, akin to digging your toes into freshly cut grass on a warm spring day, there was a sense of rightness in the world, luxurious goodness for my feet and confidence in my choice of footwear (a rare occurrence).

This was shoephoria. And then I learned a valuable fact about shoephoria: it has a transitive property. That's right. Convinced with the purchase of these new shoes, I put my plain casual black shoes back on and felt a strong echo of the shoephoria. These shoes, that minutes before had felt okay, but made there presence known, now contributed a sense of sheer comfort and pleasure. For thirty minutes, my basic blacks carried the aura of expensive dress shoes as my feet held onto ingrained sense memory of that shoephoria. And it was great until it started fading and I found myself needing to put back on the nice pair for more shoephoria.

Forget the hard drugs, shoephoria is tough to contend with.