The curious incident of a brand and a trek!

Hello and welcome back to the Brand-Bashing forum. As a part of our endeavor to educate consumers about the dangers of brands*; we bring to you this scathing episode on brand “Reebok”. It also has a sub-plot of an overweight IT guy trudging up a hill thrown in for the laughs.

Well it all started when someone like me who feeds on rice and potatoes and have never walked more than a few kilometers in my entire life decided to take on a trek of 30 kilometers. No! I can’t explain why I had this rather overambitious urge.

It was a trek, organized by some of my esteemed colleagues, to a place called Rajmachi. It is a fort situated on top of a sheer cliff surrounded by lush green woodlands of the Western Ghats. Jolly nice place to be visiting (On a helicopter).

I was proudly wearing my new Reebok sneakers when I started this trek. I was proudly thinking about this post when I ended the trek. Almost as soon as the trek started the left shoe gave way. The sole almost came off and was attached to the shoe only at the heel.

The difficulty level of the trek just went up a few notches. Reebok shoes are designed to test the limits of us extreme athletes. Come on, anyone can trek with good shoes. However, don’t chuck your Reeboks out the window yet. They make real good shoe laces. I used the shoe laces to tie the runaway sole to the shoe. Soulfully, I continued on my trek, even the wonderful mist covered mountains failed to cheer my soul. (You will encounter more of these bad sole/soul jokes)

Soon enough the whole sole came off. Then it was like skating and trekking at the same time. The trek went uphill from there, in more ways than one. Rains pitched in too. On the way back the unthinkable happened. The other shoe (Did I tell you they were Reeboks?) gave way. Body and Soul … err sole of the other shoe separated. For me, it was a challenge to keep my body and soul together.

Did I mention Reebok makes awesome shoe-laces? I used them to tie up the other shoe as well. They looked as good as new. I somehow made it back to the motorized transport (read: bus) helped by happy thoughts of steaming rice and potatoes.

Thank you for tuning in to today’s episode. The moral of the story is: If you want to buy really expensive but fabulous shoe-laces pick up a pair of Reebok sneakers.

* A cow on a typical Texas ranch can also tell us about the dangers of a brand!