The Shanghai Shoe

When I was in Shanghai with my mom and friend Mary a few months ago (has it been that long?), we kept driving past the Ports 1961 flagship store. And in the windows were these shoes and only these shoes.

The thing about luxury shopping in China is this: the taxes are so high that it’s almost 50% more expensive to buy the same goods in China as it is in Hong Kong or the US. Not that I’m in the market to buy luxury goods. But these shoes were just too fabulous to ignore.

And then Mary and I spotted a woman in our security line at Pudong Airport wearing the black shoes. It was like an omen.

The next day, settled into our Hong Kong layover, we were determined to find these shoes and how much they cost in this most excellent shoppers’ paradise. We enlisted the help of the internet and my good friends with whom we’d met for dim sum.

One minute we were drinking our hundredth cup of tea, and the next minute we were on a tram to Sogo in Causeway Bay, where Ports has a stall.

The good news was that while Sogo didn’t carry the shoes, the Ports across the harbor in Tsim Sha Tsui did.

And the bad news? Even in Hong Kong, these shoes were astronomically expensive at more than US$400 a pair.

I could never justify paying that much for gym shoes or any shoes for that matter. So my dream of wearing these cute shoes ended with a fateful call at Sogo.

But fear not. I managed to shop to my heart’s content in Hong Kong and will bring a larger suitcase next time.