Public Service Announcement: Your Kicks, Vermont’s Mud

Published April 3, 2007

By Rob Booz

It’s getting to be that most lovely and elongated of Vermont seasons: mud season. While most of us don’t have to deal with car grabbing swampy ruts and knee high farm muck, Burlington too has its share of the pervasive sogginess.

Those of us who have been here for more than a year all have our stories of ruined Sambas and mud speckled denim.

When the warm weather comes, it seems like such a good time to break out those new sneakers; the neon Asics you’ve been saving since you charged them to your parents credit card mid-winter because the salt rings on your Chucks totally depress you.

Don’t give in to this temptation! Rock the cuff and the boots for just a few more weeks. No matter how cool your new shoes are, this is mud season. No one looks sillier than the kid running across campus at 6 A.M. with makeshift condom galoshes, trying to keep his kicks that seemed so hip the night before from sinking into inevitability.

However, if the urge to whip out those sparkling new kicks can no longer be suppressed, some measures can be taken to minimize the inevitable death of your shoes:

1. Apply water proofing/stain repellent spray to shoes and let sit for 2 hours.

2. Purchase a toothbrush for shoe use only. After day trudging through mud, let mud dry and brush off with tooth brush and damp cloth.

Print This Article

Comments