I was right

Don't you hate it when your pessimism is confirmed? When your faith in humanity, after being temporarily elevated, smashes right back into the dirt? That's what happened to me today. And I'm angry.

You'll remember from my last post that I've been living a doomsday scenario with my toepads. That they're an extremely endangered species, found only in captivity and that I'm dancing on borrowed time until the demise of my pair. That that demise is now eminent since one of them has tragically popped. But, you'll also recall the glimmer of hope. The revelation that my toepads are no longer endangered, that they have been restored. Yeah... That's a load of crap perpetuated by the evil laziness of Discount Dance Supply (DDS).

I state my case: The top picture is of Danztech's Toe Saver Elite toepads from DDS's online catalogue. The bottom picture is a side-by-side comparison of my old toepad on the right and the Toe Saver Elite that just arrived on the left. I ask you, which does DDS's most resemble?

Obviously, DDS has not updated their picture of this product, despite the fact that it has been dramatically different for years. The picture in their catalogue is definitely the same as my old toepads (with the obvious exception of the duct tape). This is what I wanted. This is what I hoped for. This is not what I received. The current Danztech toepad, as I learned several years ago when I investigated this (more thoroughly, clearly) has "gel tips": that extra, bulbous bit on the end.

I tried to make the best of it... I tried out the new toepads in the kitchen. Gel tips suck. They're crammed with gel. There's no room for the gel to really move around. They didn't hurt, but they were most decidedly uncomfortable. Yuck.

I guess I'll send them back. I definitely won't use them as they are. One possibility is to cut out the gel tip, but I don't know that that would improve them enough. I'm better off just getting my money back. So I think I'll go with Jenny's suggestion of trying to patch my old toepad with a bike tube repair kit. I'm actually really looking forward to going to a bike shop with my toepads. I think that the biker dudes and I will have a ball. I might even ride my bike for the errand, for propriety's sake. I might also test drive Lea's toepads (thanks Lea!) and see if they're a good alternative.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.