Shoe Shopping in Sri Lanka
Women’s shoes at Lakshmi’s, Crescat Mall
I got a pair of shoes for $5 in India and I was well pleased with them. Then they got holes in them, which made me sad. This is my limited and annoying experience looking for shoes in Sri Lanka. For flip-flops or whatevs DSI or Bata is fine. Velly cheap and functional. I, however, was looking for black leather shoes, and simple/quality they don’t do very well. I went to multiple cheap shoe-kades – from Colombo to Kandy – they have all the same shit. I was hoping to get lucky as in India, but no-go. They shoes were all plastic-shiny, wicked-witch-pointy, or too-many-goddam-buckles. Oddly enough, the decent ones were too big for me as well, making me wonder what the market is. Meh. The end of the story is that Crescat and one place in Majestic are OK.
*Bata, DSI*: OK flip-flops, but ugly shoes. Cheap.
*Shoe Kadés*: usually crap, but my last shoes were from a cheap Indian place and I liked them. They had a ton of shoes though, whereas every single Sri Lankan store has the same limited selection. It’s not even worth going to more than one.
*Odel’s*: Insanely expensive (11,000 Rs for Flip-Flops). Calvin Klein and kinda nice, but wtf. Selection isn’t very good either. Odel’s is getting up to American prices and I think it kinda sucks.
*Arena’s*: Little cheaper but the shoes are metrosexual to the point of being retarded. They seemed to have nice women’s trainers, but didna really look.
*Majestic City*: Godawful horrible place, but there is this Leather Something store on the third floor that’s OK. Not cheap, but reasonable (2,000 – 8,000). Nothing in my size, though. When I came in this guy knocked over one display shoe which then dominoed the whole row to the ground.
*Crescat*: Good, prolly should’ve gone there first. Went to this store Lakshmi’s which I liked. Got a pair of black shoes and some Wally-looking mocassins. Had other shoes which looked like they had decent running shoes and all. Prices are not cheap, but not awful. Paid like 5,000 for black leather shoes and 3,000 for the mocassins.
Mmmm, that is all. This is a crappy post but I just wanted an excuse to post that photo.
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It’s not only shoes..when u are looking for quality/simplicity..u do get kinda really stuck here…recently went evening gown shopping,coz uni has balls all the time,and I couldnt find anything where I could say “yeah I like that”…odel,the quality was good but no selection and everything in there was bloody purple…the other places,including a so-called “posh” clothes collection had these dresses made of some weird fabric that looked like I was wearing christmas lights…they were that shiny….honestly where the hell do people get that material from…now I have reslved that if I dotn find anything soon..I’d have to buy some material and get it sewn…cant afford to buy ball gowns in UK..but nothing seems to suit my taste here…when I could afford the prices…
Why don’t you try these guys – at the Union Place junction (opposite Commercial Bank). Parking is a mess – there is none. You will need to park somewhere near Nawaloka Hospital and walk back or take a taxi. They also have another outlet somewhere else – in Bambalapitiya I believe-give them a ring and get the details.
They used to offer handmade shoes and were giood at copying designs from books. Takes a while and they occassionally get the size wrong but then they will redo it for you at no extra cost.
They also sell a number of ready made shoes as well.
Sorry, the name of the shop is the Ceylon Boot Manufactory.
sounds cool, thank you Jack
Crescat? D’oh. It was too obvious?