Governors Ball Introduced Me To The Best Platform Shoe Store, Ever

I blame the Spice Girls for my present-day love affair with platform shoes. Them, and Sora from Kingdom Hearts. I'm not too sure why I love them, but there's something in the disproportionately cartoonish look chunky shoes have when compared to my legs. My parents never really let me have them when I was growing up, so the more I started living on my own, the taller my shoes became. Now, platforms are all I wear.

Shopping for platforms, however, has proven to be aggravating. The Jeffrey Campbells and Buffalos of the world aren't terribly friendly on my wallet. The London goth stores I used to stare at online were, obviously, out of reach as well. On the other hand, cheap platforms break way too easily. It's taken me years to find a store with affordable platforms that can last a summer of New York City walking, but I think I've found it. And it's all thanks to some anonymous flower crown-wearing girl at Governors Ball.

Last year, while I was waiting for a friend to meet me at Gov Ball, I saw a girl with shoes that looked like they would be right at home in a Robyn or Spice Girls video. They were obviously not real Timberlands, but they looked like Timberlands with a three-inch platform underneath. It was love at first sight. Now, they were not, by any means, festival-appropriate. Certain festivals cull certain styles: Coachella has a pseudo-hippie aesthetic; Gov Ball is all downtown New York cool; Burning Man is, well, anything goes. The mud ruins everything when it rains at Gov Ball, though. You want to wear durable, cleanable shoes or shoes that you don't care if they get dirty. These platforms were neither mud-ready nor durable. But they were amazing, and I needed them. So, I did a very uncharacteristic thing and interrupted what seemed like a very intense conversation with her girlfriends. I asked where they were from, and she told me this online store called UrbanOG. 

I half expected the shoes to be stupid expensive. They weren't. To my surprise, they were stupid affordable—like so affordable I wondered if I was throwing my money away at nothing. With the sale that was going on, I paid less than $30. And you know what? The platforms have lasted a year without a scratch or need to be reglued. They've lasted longer than some of my $200 pairs and are way more comfortable.

Now, I turn to UrbanOG for platforms because they're all typically less than $50 and the site always, always has insanely good deals. The platform brand may not be the most well-known, but it's all about the look anyway. Style has no brand. It's intrinsic to the individual and UrbanOG has elevated mine to new heights—literally and figuratively. You could say my life has been spiced up. May yours now be, too.