Welcome back to Weird Shoe Wednesdays, that time in the week when I get the screwface and a bunch of animated question marks start blinking above my head.

This week’s winner: the “Armadillo” heels by Alexander McQueen, as worn by fashion icon/popstar Lady Gaga in her new music video, “Bad Romance.” The snakeskin monstrosities have 10-inch heels, standing 12 inches high altogether in a sort of claw-like posture. The shoes make a short cameo in Lady Gaga’s video but that was enough apparently. The “Armadillos” and all its siblings look like they’ll be selling out pretty soon. Personally, I think the only benefit the “Armadillos” could ever have that would make them in any way appealing would be if the material was as strong of a protective shell as real armadillos’ shells. Like if the shoes were nearly bullet-proof, military and law enforcement might have to look into getting some pairs to go with their bullet-proof vests.

SRT79HKCTG84. Photo: iwantigot.geekigirl.com

After the jump, the runner-up: Harajuku Lovers’ “Dobson” bow-tie boots, via Shoeper Woman (seriously, where does she find these shoes?).

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Since Thanksgiving arrives this Thursday, I thought we might take the time to pay some respect to Native American communities, who have sacrificed so much in the history surrounding Thanksgiving. I guess Nike had similar plans.

About a week ago, Nike debuted a new line of shoes called the Nike N7 Collection. The N7 Collection is designed to meet the unique needs of Native American feet and to be as environmentally safe as possible. A portion of the funds from sales of the N7 Collection will go into the N7 Fund, which supports youth sports in Native American communities.

Nike N7 Air Pegasus+ 26. Photo from dubdaily.com

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TWILIGHT MANIA CONTINUES!!! IN ALL CAPS, NO LESS!!!

A talented artist and devoted Twilight fan who goes by Alcat2021 is selling some nice custom Twilight Chucks on Etsy, a website that deals exclusively in hand-crafted goods. The shoes feature a variety of choice characters, symbols, scenes, and quotes from the Twilight Saga. The prices are pretty steep, but I’m sure your love for Twilight runs much deeper anyway so that might not even be an issue. And if you can’t find your absolute most extremely favorite-est character, symbol, scene, and/or quote from Twilight among the available collection of Converses, don’t worry: Alcat2021 does custom orders with anything Twilight-related that you can imagine.

Photo by Alcat2021

Alternatively, PunkYourChucks.com also has a wide selection of Twilight Converse Chucks and will also make custom shoes tailored exactly the way you want them. More pics after the jump.

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I couldn’t leave for the weekend without mentioning the phenomenon that is The Twilight Saga. New Moon, the latest movie in the series, premieres today (that is, it premiered last night at the stroke of midnight to legions of bloodthirsty fans). Since we know that all these Twilight characters are way too cool for school to the max, I thought it’d be neat to look into the footwear of one of them, namely Bella.

Bella goes through at least a couple of pairs of shoes in New Moon. Earlier in the summer, she was spotted in a couple pairs of Keds “Champion” lace-ups, one in navy blue (above) and one in beige, while shooting two different scenes in New Moon (the reunion scene and a LaPush scene, respectively). Check out the beige Keds and another pair of shoes that Bella sports in New Moon, after the jump.

Worn during the reunion scene in New Moon

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Sorta staying in the same inspirational mood as yesterday’s post about TOMS Shoes, Adidas announced earlier this week that it was in the process of developing extremely cheap trainers to aid the millions of people worldwide who do not own shoes. As it hasn’t finalized the design and/or production costs of the shoe yet, it hasn’t finalized a price yet either. But Adidas is aiming for a €1 price point (about $1.50USD). The company plans to begin production in Bangladesh next year.

Can you imagine: shell-toes for $1.50?

Adidas likely isn’t doing this for the most admirable of reasons, like TOMS Shoes. Sports apparel companies like Adidas and Nike continually come under fire for exploiting workers in developing countries. This is probably just a move to clean up the company image a bit. Still, this is very positive news and hopefully, it’s a sign of a growing trend of socially responsible business. And hopefully, Adidas also decides to promote their new shoes by reuniting Run-DMC (with all due respect to the late Jam Master Jay, of course).

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Running With Heels recently ran a good interview with Blake Mycoskie, the founder of TOMS Shoes. The TOMS Shoes footwear company is an extremely charitable company that operates on a One to One giving model–basically, for every pair of TOMS shoes you buy, the company donates another pair to impoverished children in South America and Ethiopia. To date, they have donated more than 150,000 pairs of shoes. TOMS Shoes is inspirational, to say the least.

Photo from www.worldvisionreport.org

The interview reveals some of Mycoskie’s thought process behind the design of his new shoes, how the needs of the children even guide both the functional and aesthetic qualities of TOMS shoes. If you’re in the giving, charitable, full-of-good-will mood this upcoming holiday season, maybe think about getting some TOMS. They’ll be both a gift to your friend or family member and a gift to a child in need.

Seeing hundreds of shoes pass within my grasp everyday, I can appreciate when a shoe can set itself apart from the pack and give me a little boost in my day. I’ve decided that we must celebrate these sorts of unique shoes that will make me scratch my head. And so I present to you Weird Shoe Wednesdays. Because in an increasingly homogenized world, “weird” is awesome and “Wednesdays” alliterate well with the word “weird.” Why not?

Shoes that could chill your soul.

This week, we have Dolce & Gabbana’s ‘face’ wedges, courtesy of Shoeper Woman. They have a suede upper with a side silhouette of a face and a jewel for the eye. The shoe towers above anything else with a 2-inch platform and a 6-inch wedge heel. And yeah … it’s a face on your foot. And a pretty creepy face at that, one that seems to stare with thinly-veiled evil intent. It’s like when you meet your in-laws and you know they hate you and would love nothing better than to tie your foot to the end of an Acme rocket about to blast off but they smile in front of you all the same to keep things civil. Yeah, not such a great feeling to carry around all day on your feet, I wouldn’t think.

After the jump, the runner-up for this week’s Weird Shoe Wednesdays, shoes in the shape of a mallard from Chie Mihara (via Fantastic Toe). Much more pleasant.

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This is somewhat old news by now but I’m just hearing confirmation about it today. About a month ago, there was some controversy with Marcus Jordan, the son of NBA legend and sneaker fiend aggregator Michael Jordan. This year, Marcus is a freshman basketball player for the University of Central Florida. Now, UCF has had a contractual agreement for at least the past 4 years with Adidas to sport Adidas athletic footwear and apparel in return for sponsorship. But Marcus Jordan, the son of arguably the greatest basketball player of all time, could not bear to step into anything less than Nike Air Jordan sneakers. There was concern about what his stubbornness would mean for the team and even for UCF sports in general.

Beautiful enough to fight for?

Apparently, that meant a lot to Adidas. After Marcus Jordan wore a pair of Air Jordan shoes during one of UCF basketball’s exhibition games, Adidas announced that it was ending its sponsorship of UCF sports. Ouch!

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Have you ever seen shoes so good-looking that you could just eat them up? I guess artist Olle Hemmendorff has and decided to make that feeling into a reality when Nike commissioned him and 7 other artists to showcase their Nike-inspired creations at 1912 Space. Check out Sneakerfiles for more info on the different ingredients in the shoe.

After the jump, check out some Asics that would go perfectly with that burger. Now excuse me … I suddenly have this inexplicable craving for McDonald’s.

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Is it me or does everyone seem to be training for a race these days?

For the past 4 months, I’ve been training for the Silverstrand Half-Marathon taking place this weekend in San Diego. This is my first race ever. And it’s the weirdest thing that as I started training, it seemed like everyone I bumped into was training for a marathon run of some sort. I’ve discovered no less than four friends who are in-training just like me. I don’t know if marathon-running is becoming more popular now or if I just notice it more now that I’m doing it or if maybe our water supply has been contaminated with Gatorade without our knowledge, turning us into fitness addicts.

Photo by harrykeely

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