John Jannuzzi is a New York-based editor at Lucky Magazine. You can catch his constant stream of tweets at @johnjannuzzi or his fashion and literary musings at Textbook.
"A good pair of shoes is difficult to find for anybody, but especially for people like me with weird feet. I won't get into why they're weird, but take my word for it.
Anyway, before I moved to New York, I was pretty much a serial New Balance and Adidas wearer. There's certainly nothing wrong with that (in fact, if you catch me in the early morning I'm usually still in a pair) but as my career progressed, I had to step it up a little bit. A couple of years ago, I went out looking for a new pair of boots to get me through the winter. After checking a ton of different places, I found a pair in West Village's Odin. They were the Rachel Comey Burnside boots. They fit perfectly and were classic enough to last through several seasons. From then on, I became a Comey devotee.
"As much as I love the Burnsides, I have another pair of Comey shoes that I like better: the Black Bess in brown. These were actually a birthday gift last year from my friend Julia (Frakes). Like most good shoes, they took a while to break in, but they were completely worth it. The leather was stiff, but turned soft after a few weeks and they can be worn with pretty much anything — suit, jeans, whatever you got they can handle. So, not only do they have sentimental value, but they're practical.
"Like the Burnside boots, these wore in great. The leather is supple, but not nasty-looking, and there's an ink stain (from a typewriter, long story) on the left shoe. They've held up through the weather. I wear them every day, so I suppose, yes, you could say I couldn't live without them and yes, I love them. Thanks Rachel Comey, you make a damn good shoe."