Posted on: Sunday, October 6, 2002

By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Columnist

Here's something I'll bet you didn't know. Nordstrom Shoes at Ward Centre stocks four times more white dress shoes for men than all the other major shoe stores in Our Honolulu put together.

That's because the other shoe stores combined stock one pair. Nordstrom stocks four pairs.

You may be saying to yourself, "What's the difference? Nobody wears white shoes." True. But let's put it another way. How can you wear white shoes when they aren't for sale? On Bishop Street the other day, I counted 12 pairs of white pants within three blocks.

But none of the men wearing the pants had on white shoes. How could they? You can't buy them around here.

I've been wearing white pants and white shoes for a quarter of a century. They are the most practical male attire I can think of for Our Honolulu. They're cool, smart and tropical. Better still, they go with anything.

You can go to your closet blindfolded, pick out a shirt and not worry that it won't match. White pants set off the colors in an aloha shirt better than any other, and look even sharper with a jacket.

But white pants need white shoes. Black shoes with white pants look like an evening gown with lumberjack boots. It's like wearing clock sox with walking shorts. You might as well wear a tank top to a funeral.

I admit that there has never been an abundance of white shoes in Honolulu. But the stores always had a few pairs to pick from.

Five years ago, the bottom dropped out of white shoes. About 1996, I bought five pairs, all they had in my size, at a store on Fort Street. Those shoes have kept me shod into the new millennium. ut the last pair looks like they came through a hike up Mount Olomana.

So I've been shopping for white shoes. The store on Fort Street has disappeared. Shirokiya's doesn't sell shoes anymore. Sears? Plenty of white running shoes. Not a single pair you'd wear to lunch at a nice restaurant.

Why can't the manufacturers put out a simple white shoe without gold buckles and wings and black trim?

There are acres of shoes at Macy's. Imelda Marcos would go crazy in women's shoes. And the men's department isn't far behind. Gordon Nagano, shoe clerk for 30 years, said sadly that he has no white shoes in stock.

But he was kind enough to suggest Nordstrom. I hot-footed over there and bought a pair of flashy white bucks that will have to do until I find my kind of white shoe.