I'm not really a name brand type of guy. Nike slogans just annoy me. I've been buying the same few brands of jeans since I was ten years old, and I can't remember off hand what they are unless I look at the back pocket. Nonetheless, unless I am getting dress shoes (which I buy almost never), I only shop at one place: the New Balance factory outlet.

This has nothing to do with how New Balance shoes look. They run the gamut from plain to ugly. Although they do not have some of the hideous decals and bizarre contours and vents of some of the more popular shoe brands, they make up for it with an endless variety of drab, depressing grays, whites, and blacks. They would be delighted to give you some catalogs to check their product. No. I shop at  the New Balance factory outlet because they are the only shoes that reliably fit my feet. 

My dad used to joke that I could stamp out forest fires with my feet. They are large, flat, and square – 13 triple wide to be precise. If the floor is wet, my right foot actually suction cups to it. So, before I discovered the New Balance factory outlet, going to the shoe store was an agonizing and dreaded trip, where I would have to spend hours to just find the one over-priced shoe which kind of fit my foot. But at the New Balance factory outlet I have, at any time, at least half a dozen shoes in my size and style (medium top cross trainers) which fit my feet perfectly. Sometimes more. 

Another thing that I've always liked about the New Balance factory outlet is that, at least for an athletic shoe store, it is devoid of that nauseating jock hype crap that you see in, say, a store specializing in Nike or Adidas. No “Just do it,” no posters of people slam dunking with neon tracers coming off their body, no insulting implications that, if you wear their shoes, you will become the next Michael Jordan. The New Balance factory outlet isn't there to con you. They know that you're in there because you like their shoes, and all they want to do is sell you shoes. They don't need to sell you lies with them. I buy shoes at the New Balance factory outlet because they are comfortable and, for tennis shoes, reasonably tolerable in appearance. Who needs fantasy – I just go to the New Balance factory outlet for good shoes.