No trainers!

2 watchers

DeeGee Jan 2014 8:07pm, 6 Jan 2014 15,159 posts	0 DeeGee So anyway, I ran a marathon in a major town in the Home Counties on Saturday. Travelled down from Great Grimsby with a mate on the Friday night, and arrived with the intention of me repaying my friend's generosity driving with a couple of pints in a good-value chain pub. It's a chain that I've used many times - almost every time I go anywhere as I find their food to be good value, and they have easily accessible plug sockets. Anyway, we turn up to the pub, literally next door to our hotel, to be refused entry because we're wearing trainers. I haven't been refused entry to licensed premises on dress grounds since I became an adult apart from once attempting to get a pint at a place in Newcastle Upon Tyne wearing football colours. In fact, so confident am I that I won't be told to clear off because my shoes aren't good enough that I don't have a pair of "leather" shoes at home - I always wear some kind of sportshoe, and if I'm going to a wedding I bring my one pair of smart shoes home from work. What's the deal there? I know there are some Fetchies in the licensed trade, so if someone can explain to me why one style of shoe is acceptable and another isn't I'd be most grateful to know. Is it to keep trouble out on the grounds that only violent thugs wear trainers? Is it to keep riff-raff out on the grounds that all leather shoes cost more than any running shoe? Is it to surreptitiously ensure a gender balance because women wear spiky pointy stillettoes? Or is it on health and safety grounds - in which case, thanks, I don't want to go in your pub. Is it a southern thing? Unique to The Secklow Hundred in Milton Keynes (not naming any names), or just totally arbitrary? More importantly, next time I go away for a race, and fancy a drink the night before, do I need to pack another pair of shoes? Given that I travel quite lightly and by train, that's rather silly.
swittle Jan 2014 9:07pm, 6 Jan 2014 27,350 posts	0 swittle Not if you want to get served it's not. Srsly, why don't you play the innocent and email the chain's PR people, adopting a slightly aggrieved tone? And drop in the name of another chain of hostelries?
DeeGee Jan 2014 9:15pm, 6 Jan 2014 15,164 posts	0 DeeGee I have. I'm not really that bothered, but, y'know. Worth a try...
DeeGee Jan 2014 9:25pm, 6 Jan 2014 15,165 posts	0 DeeGee Still don't understand the point of the policy, though. If I knew why it exists, then I'd be more understanding.
JohnnyO Jan 2014 9:26pm, 6 Jan 2014 17,098 posts	0 JohnnyO Lots of places around (Leeds) here that don't let you in in any form of sportswear.
ogee Jan 2014 9:30pm, 6 Jan 2014 20,044 posts	0 ogee Fucks sake deegee, stop it with the leisurewear & wear some proper shoes & clothes when you go out to the pub.
DeeGee Jan 2014 9:48pm, 6 Jan 2014 15,166 posts	0 DeeGee Leeds! Why doesn't that surprise me?
Brighouse Boy Jan 2014 10:24pm, 6 Jan 2014 962 posts	0 Brighouse Boy Footwear nazis! Why does it matter what you wear on you feet? Surely, it only matters whether you're a decent human being or not. Rant over.
DeeGee Jan 2014 11:03pm, 6 Jan 2014 15,168 posts	0 DeeGee Correct, BB. But it seems that you can tell I'm more likely to kick someone's head in with a pair of Kanadias than this character: thesun.co.uk
JohnnyO Jan 2014 11:24pm, 6 Jan 2014 17,101 posts	0 JohnnyO I always thought it was more to do with the image that the establishment wants to portray, rather than the ability of footwear to predict a criminal tendency. However, neck tattoos are another matter.