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[RANT] Men wearing sneakers with dress clothes


Divide By Zero

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Divide By Zero

I work in an office and the dress code is business casual. The men usually wear dress pants and dress shirts (although there are a few who think business casual means street clothes, but that's another rant for another day). I am amazed, and extremely annoyed, at how many men wear sneakers with their dress clothes. Are they so sartorially clueless that they don't know to wear dress shoes? If you're wearing dress pants and a dress shirt, you should be wearing dress shoes. Sneakers with dress clothes looks so trashy, awful, ridiculous and stupid.

 

Now I realize that sometimes due to the weather, it makes sense to wear sneakers outside and not dress shoes but if you're indoors there's no excuse.

 

Sometimes the managers wear suits. I saw a manager wearing a suit today and he was wearing sneakers with it. I felt like going up to him and saying, "Seriously? You're wearing sneakers with a suit? Where are your dress shoes? Do you even know what dress shoes are? Have you ever heard of dress shoes? Are you completely clueless when it comes to clothes?"

 

I MEAN, SERIOUSLY - WHAT THE @#$%#$% IS WITH SOME MEN THAT THEY THINK IT'S ACCEPTABLE TO WEAR SNEAKERS WITH DRESS CLOTHES AT THE OFFICE?

 

 

EDIT: Wow, this seems to have touched a nerve. I wasn't expecting that. People seem to have strong opinions on this issue. Sometimes it seems like the little issues cause the biggest reactions.

For the most part, I really don't care what others wear, although I do notice. Generally speaking, I am a "live and let live" person, although I do think that in some situations guidelines, procedures, rules, etc. are called for. I think my rant came off as being angry, which wasn't really the intention. I was annoyed and felt like venting but not angry. It is a reminder that written communication can be problematic in that you only have the words and no tone or context.

 

 

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I wear black Converses when I go out in a suit. I blame The Doctor for that. 

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Maybe it's a West Coast thing.  :P  I saw something similar the other day.  My guess is, if someone takes the trouble to dress up but skips the shoes, it probably means they don't own comfortable dress shoes.  Either that, or they don't feel comfortable dressing up and are trying to "offset it" with casual footwear.

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Will affect their work? Won't they be hiding their feet under a desk most of the time? Who made sneakers unacceptable to begin with?

I for one think it is absolutely ridiculous to give vague dress codes based on ever changing norms (What is "casual business" for you today may be something else for someone else, or something else for you tomorrow because fashion). The only dress codes anyone should be able to demand is "cover up x" or "wear the standard issue uniform". "Fancy" and "casual" are just undefined subjective terms.

 

P.S. If your boss lets you wear comfortable shoes, why should you complain?

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We're business casual as well but I usually wear jeans, a t-shirt, and sneakers.  Sneakers with dress clothes is pretty odd though.

 

1 hour ago, Mr E said:

Sometimes the managers wear suits. I saw a manager wearing a suit today and he was wearing sneakers with it. I felt like going up to him and saying, "Seriously? You're wearing sneakers with a suit? Where are your dress shoes? Do you even know what dress shoes are? Have you ever heard of dress shoes? Are you completely clueless when it comes to clothes?"

Consider this a life tip, you don't need to give a shit what other people think when you're above them.

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DesiButters519x

Honestly I think it's no big deal. I get that some people like to be nicely dressed and to them clothing is very important. This is the 21 century so I am not shocked. I mean if this was the 1940's and so on do you think you would see that? NOT A CHANCE... you couldn't even go to the deli in slippers like you can now a day. Plus, as long as they are good workers doing their job, who cares what they wear?

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To each their own. I think it's fine - getting dressed up can be fun. It can also be a pain. But I don't see much point in getting worked up over other people's choices. (of course there are limits - like not exposing stuff that shouldn't be exposed (although standards in that realm evolve and change), not wearing clothes that interferes with the ability to do one's job, and the like. But arbitrary fashion rules are rather silly. Neckties themselves are pretty ridiculous, for example. Or the "rule" about not wearing white before/after some arbitrary day of the year.) It's fine to stick to one's own ideas and standards. Live and let live is my motto. :)

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Anime Pancake

Why are you bothered so much by other people? I could understand if you were a manager and your employees were being disrespectful.

 

If you want to dress formally then dress formally. We can't expect everyone to live according to our personal style.

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Just be glad they're not wearing the 'Canadian Tuxedo': Jeans, with a jean jacket, over a t-shirt. Yes people, there are things worse than socks with sandals!:P

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I am angry. Angry about shoes. I am the very angriest at people who dare wear different shoes than they're supposed to.

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It's a good thing that you did not say those things to your manager, or he'd have said a few things to you on your way out of your job.  

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NerotheReaper

I don't see it as a problem, no reason to get worked up about something as silly as shoes. Plus I don't look at someone's shoes and make judgements on them, maybe I am weird and look at their face and listen to them and base my opinion on that. 

 

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If your bosses don't care, what's the big deal? They're the ones who set the boundaries with uniform after all. Also, depending on the trainers, it can work quite well in the summer.

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I've always been in a work environment where you don't need to wear fancy dress. But if you have to, do it all the way. If work environments have a dress code, to anyone with a few years of work experience it should be obvious that it is conservative in 99% of all cases.

 

Funny story: I went to an international conference a few years ago and brought a suit for the gala dinner, as that was what I expected to be the convention. When I arrived at the gala dinner, to my big disbelief about half of the people looked like British tourists in Benidorm. The other half actually understood what a gala dinner is.

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As much as I personally love the look of trainers with a suit, then don't start leaning into insult territory. Everyone is allowed their opinion, so lets stay civil with each other :) 

 

I would honestly where white trainers with a black suit almost every day, if I could.

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Luftschlosseule

I only can wear one type of shoe because I have deformed feet. If I wear any other kind of shoe I get blisters after a small stroll, and my feet are full of scars because these blisters don't heal as long as I am wearing shoes. I don't assume that it is the case for every person you're ranting about, and I don't know how much the people in your office have to walk.

My father is working for a security firm, and once he was at a museum where he had to wear a tie. They had an agreement with their boss that they could wear black trainers als long as they didn't look very like trainers, but it was more important that they were able to do their job than wearing formal footwear.

 

I don't see the sense in buying formal shoes for one occasion, by the way. If you're wearing them daily for work, okay, but if you only wear them once they're far too expensive. My mother has never worn the shoes she wore for her wedding a second time, which I never could understand. It's not like she was never dressed formally afterwards, or as if the colour wouldn't match to anything else she has...

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I don't give a shit about what anyone deems acceptable to put together and I embrace this ignorance flamboyantly. You all can stick your 'x looks wrong with y' up your rear.

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Sneakers with dress clothes do look kind of weird to me, but whatever, to each their own. I don't get why people who work in an office and don't have any face to face contact with the general public even need a dress code anyway. Seems pointless to me.

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13 hours ago, Ocean Eyes said:

Men are pretty clueless about clothing and hair in general. Hahaha.

 

Poor fools..

I'm a man and I…

 

 

…think I agree. :P There seem to be those two extremes of too pedantic about looks or not at all with just a few of the middle-grounds. At least that's how I perceive it in this area.

On the flipside, I don't care all too much either, I just dress how I feel most comfortable. :lol:

 

The combination of "full dress + sneakers" seems still pretty weird though. Now if it was a casual dress with jeans and such, okay. But quite honestly, I always found the "casual formal dress style" to be weird. It must be some trend. I've never been big on trends.

Overall, I don't mind what others wear though, they could dress as a neon-ad if it makes them happy. As long as it doesn't blind me and make me walk into a lamp post… whatever. To each their own. ;)

 

If the boss/manager doesn't point out to change the shoes, I guess you'll have to (I actually hate to say the next words as I don't like them…) deal with it though. I wouldn't advise to point it out and be angered about it, it could affect relationships at work in a negative way or result in exclusion, bullying or something like that.

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Reminds me of the time one of the court reporters I work with said that if she'd had her way, we would never be able to wear jeans even on Friday (casual day). I told her that Friday was the only day I got to wear real clothes to work. She seemed kinda bemused by that. She comes from the east coast where they tend to be a bit uptight about what you should and should not wear to work, etc. However, we are in the SW where clean jeans, a button down shirt, and a Bolo tie are considered dressed up. In Hawai'i, it's even more relaxed - you can show up to a business meeting in Bermuda shorts and a Hawaiian shirt, socks and sandals ... LOL It's all about where you live.

 

To be honest, I wonder why suits and dresses still persist in this day and age. I'd like to see them phased out as daily wear and kept only for special occasions. Though, you'd have to force me into a dress. Bleh.

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So they wear sneakers, so what? If it's not hurting anyone and the managers don't care why should you?

You seem to be getting yourself all upset over something that really doesn't matter much if at all.

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Can somebody please explain to me why matching clothes are considered important in the first place... it doesn't make any difference at all, ever. Personally, I don't even recognize things like that. I'm a-clothual :D if I fits, I sits.

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Luftschlosseule
10 minutes ago, Homer said:

Can somebody please explain to me why matching clothes are considered important in the first place... it doesn't make any difference at all, ever. Personally, I don't even recognize things like that. I'm a-clothual :D if I fits, I sits.

Sign of you taking your profession seriously instead of... ehm... that's where it leaves me.
Heard of women who wear flat shoes getting discriminated because apparently that's not how you're supposed to look. Gives this vibe of "I don't care what you do as long as you're dressed properly", doesn't it?

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Appearance does create an impression, whether people realise or not. So to some people, trainers with a suit just won't work in their eyes, whereas other people will love it.

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The only time my work attire had visible effect was when I worked security. Even the most basic uniform embued a sense of authority that other people respected. It was hella weird to me, because I'm rather timid IRL.

 

Also, people having a work dress code stops distractions imo. Much like school uniforms.

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Man if you think smart trousers with trainers are bad, imagine what it's like to wear sport shorts a d socks with good shoes cause you forgot trainers and the only other footware has studs in them for afterwork football, making them unsuitable for wearing off a pitch.

 

Now that is a walk of shame I've had to do a couple of times.

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