Medellin shoe shop
This is a guest post by Robin, director of The Arepa.
Medellin, home to friendly Paisas, beautiful women, and people with really small feet.
Yes, small, feet.
I have lived here for a year now and have sadly not been able to find a pair of shoes in size 13. Here in Medellin, shoe sizes stop at 12. And it’s not that I haven’t looked either. Over the past 6 months I have visited over 60 shoes stores and am now treading the streets with shoes that have holes in them. I simply can not find a size 13 (or 46 in Euro sizes) because they simply don’t exist here.
Friendly Paisas always have a recommendation of the one place that may have something bigger, but I have visited them all, high and low, and nothing. I even went to the small and scuzzy Diamante plaza which everyone said would have big shoes but they all ended at 12. Well, that is not entirely true, I did find one size 13 but it was a big poofy Nike basketball shoe that had no laces and a big white plastic strap across the top – it was horrendous, and $150.
So, if you are looking for a business that caters to the gringos with big feet in Medellin, man that market would be at your feet; yes, pun intended!
Robin is the director of Medellin’s English magazine called The Arepa. You can check out the magazine at: www.thearepa.com
I found the same thing to be true even in Bogota! My friend from Bogota took me to the “shoe shopping center”, and we still struggled to find much in a US size 13. Colombianos: small feet, big hearts!
Hey Mike,
Thanks for stopping by Medellin Living and reading Robin’s piece. I agree about the big hearts!
We are trying to find a conversion chart for US size shoes to Colombian sizes but are getting mixed answers. Some say Euro sizes and others say Colombian sizes are similar but not exact like Euro. We want to bring some with us for freinds and relatives. HELP HELP
I found the same thing to be true even in Bogota! My friend from Bogota took me to the “shoe shopping center”, and we still struggled to find much in a US size 13. Colombianos: small feet, big hearts!