This week’s featured OESHer, Jean Lanham, started accruing OESHer street cred back in 2011, when she sent us the following glowing testimony (which you may have seen in that August’s OESH email newsletter):
It’s me again. I ordered size 8 Classic and I have not taken them off except for sleep. I love them that much. I had a total knee replacement a year ago and had never regained my free and easy gait. I’m bouncing around the place as though I was 23 all over again instead of almost 80…I have placed an order for the Lizard and I thank you very much for getting a shoe right. The design and technical part is a wonder and I’m enjoying examining the shoe along with the joy of walking again…I discovered the site after reading the NYT article regarding toner shoes.
Jean also posted a rave review of her Classics on a Washington Post article about minimalist shoes, noting, “I have barely taken them off since I first put them on my feet (…) I have all the others that are out there and they are going to be donated to a place that recycles shoes for playground equipment.” So she cares about the children, too!
But even more than with her kind words about OESH shoes, Jean impressed us with the stories of what she does while wearing them. As a volunteer for Suburban Hospital’s Mobile Med/NIH Heart Clinic, Jean helps “provide cardiac care for the vulnerable and uninsured residents of Montgomery County, MD” – a much-needed community service, and one I personally appreciate as a heart-owning Washingtonian – and is happy to tell everyone about her fabulous shoes along the way.
Jean also loves to travel – in an email earlier this year she sent us a picture of herself on New Year’s Day crossing the Swinging Bridge in Buchanan, VA. Tracing her Southern roots, Jean braved the cold and the swinging in a pair of black Classics.
Regarding her OESH, she reported, “I was a bit hesitant to walk across something so moveable but the shoes kept me sure footed. Part of my family behind me to catch me but they weren’t needed.”
Not that that should come as a surprise – Jean, an accomplished dancer, told us she uses the Classic as her jazz shoe of choice and, though she didn’t mention doing so specifically, we’d hazard a guess that at some point she busted a move or two on her way across the bridge. Just saying.
In addition to owning an impressive five pairs of OESH (two Classics, two Suede Sandals, one Athletic) herself, Jean has also converted her three daughters to the cause. With two of them blazing through the Billy Goat Trail along the C&O Canal in Maryland and another doing her thing in Colorado, we can’t wait to see how Jean’s daughters plan to follow in Mom’s OOTW-worthy footsteps – literally and figuratively.
So there’s Jean, this week’s OOTW and our soul sister from another mister. Keep on dancing, fixing hearts, and spreading the word about sensible footwear everywhere you go!
If you would like to nominate someone you know for OESHer of the Week, email ellaevans@oeshshoes.com with their name, contact information, and what makes you think they’re the bee’s knees… get it? Bonus points for a picture of said nominee wearing their favorite pair of OESH.
