I bought a cream mule off resale eighteen months ago telling myself it would replace three pairs of office flats at once, and I want to be honest that it has been worn exactly nine times, I counted last week in a fit of guilt while reorganizing my shoe shelf, and I still consider that a win because I know for a fact one pair sitting in this closet has been worn zero times and cost more than my rent.
That’s the actual argument here, not whether the mule itself is good, everyone in my group chat agrees it’s good, the argument is about how often the thing gets worn versus how often you bought it convinced it would get worn. One friend swears hers is in weekly rotation, I don’t fully believe her, I think she’s counting the two times she wore it to brunch and calling that “weekly” the way people call a salad “basically dinner.”
The dress code gray area is where this shoe either earns its place or becomes a very expensive mistake. My office is the kind of “business casual” that means nothing, so a cream mule reads as put together on a Tuesday and slightly bridal on a Friday when everyone else is in sneakers, and I have absolutely misjudged that line and spent a meeting aware that my feet looked more dressed than my face.
The slip on part is the whole appeal and the whole risk, you’re not lacing anything, you’re not bending down, you’re stepping in like you have somewhere important to be, which is exactly the energy until you’re power walking to catch an elevator and one heel decides to stay behind on the sidewalk while the rest of you keeps moving. That has happened to me, in public, near a Chase Bank, and a stranger picked it up before I even turned around, which I choose to remember as chivalry and not as evidence I need actual shoes with a back.
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The slap against the floor is real too, cheaper ones sound like you’re personally announcing every step you take, the good ones are quieter, and I checked that before I checked the return policy because I’ve learned the hard way what an open floor plan does to a loud shoe.
I’ll admit this one’s a gamble for anyone who actually walks fast for a living, if you’re sprinting for trains or chasing a toddler at drop off, this is not your shoe, this is a shoe for people who walk like they have time, which most of us don’t, we just dress like we do.
So nine wears in eighteen months, worn slower than intended, worn to look like I have somewhere to be rather than actually going anywhere fast, and somehow still worth it every single time I put it on.
