New Sneakers!!

After Pesach, I spoke to several relatives and friends who live overseas and once again was reminded just how lucky I am to live in ISRAEL. Although Pesach is not an easy chag no matter where you live (in fact I think hotels should begin running 3 day packages for all of us out there who cleaned, prepared and cooked), the fact is that Pesach in Israel is easier. We have one seder, the holiday is only 7 days long, and you can easily go out for a bite to eat.

And now that Yom HaShoah, Yom HaZikron and Yom HaAtzmaut are here

I really love living in Israel.

That is, until I need to buy my children new sneakers. This may sound strange - that of all things, buying sneakers would make it to the top of my list, but it really does. First, the prices are ridiculous. Second, the selection is limited. Recently, when a salesperson brought out a number of sneakers in “girl” colors saying that is all they had, hoping to somehow fool my 12 year old into thinking that pink is now for boys, well.... he did not fool me and he certainly did not fool him!

Third, if the style and color have finally been picked then the issue of size nonetheless remains an issue. If the sneaker is too tight, they rip out the insole. If the sneaker is too wide then they pull the laces tighter, and if the sneaker is too long or too short they will always say it is perfect. I therefore try as best as possible to avoid buying sneakers here and wait until we are in New York. But as I am sure all of you out there are aware, an annual trip to the USA does not get you through the year.

So I took my son, who at this point was desperately looking and searching… and we ended up in the Adidas store at the Tel-Aviv port. When we walked in my son said “this is like NY”. Trying not to raise a pessimist, I agreed and said “it really does”, all the while thinking to myself: lets see what they try and ”sell us”.

Well, to my astonishment, the whole experience was a great success, starting with Shira a sweet, kind and patient salesgirl. Once a style was picked, she went in to the back, brought out what we wanted (along with other options), checked the fit on my son's foot, the correct way: the length, the width and had him walk around to make sure they were comfortable. I was really shocked.

So when another boy needed sneakers we went straight back to Shira at the Adidas shop and again, she was sweet, kind, and patient. Only this time when the size was not right, she went into the back to get the right size, and when they were all out, she suggested we order the right ones, no excuses, no stories … just professional.

Although the prices are still ridiculous, the selection and service were great.