Pantofola d'Oro Sneakers

Pantofola d'Oro / $5.99 / €80-200 New

What started as me just dropping off some old clothes to donate ended with me not leaving as empty-handed as I'd hoped. Oh well, these are pretty sweet.

Since getting back from my senior trip to France & Italy, I've been pretty partial to buying post-trip souvenirs. (Like this Dolomite Expedition-inspired coat!) Well... here's another late souvenir from the most beautiful country I've been to. Saw these on the rack and thought they were a pair of Adidas at first, because of the three stripes. Took a closer look and noticed the pretty blatant Italian written all over it. I knew "d'Oro" meant gold, cause high school Spanish. Picked them up and they felt pretty nice. The tread was barely worn, the leather felt real, and I loved the stars and classic/vintage feel of them. Tried them on, they fit perfectly. It seemed kinda weird to have Italian shoes in an Idaho Goodwill, so I figured these were probably pretty cool.

Got home and discovered two things. First, the middle star on the left shoe is missing. Oops. (Still would have gotten them if I'd noticed that to begin with.) Secondly, that these are really Italian made, and by a company that is one of my new favorites! (Pantofola d'Oro--look at their other shoes! SO gorgeous!! If I had hundreds of euros to splourge on a single pair, I'd do it!) They only recently started to distribute in the states, and only in a handful of boutiques in bigger cities. These have the US size printed on the bottom of the tongue, so that tells me these probably weren't originally purchased in Italy, but from one of these boutiques. Amazon has a similar pair of these shoes for something like 80 euros, but the company's online store only has a couple shoes priced under 200 euros. So this is definitely a pretty high-quality footwear find!