My thoughtless act is actually my own. Women’s fashion is usually plagued by having a deficiency in number of pockets, or in size of pockets. And as mobile phones have been getting larger and larger, it becomes frustratingly difficult to carry a phone around without completely occupying a hand. A staple to my wardrobe are knee-high boots, though.

One day a couple years ago, a gentleman made a comment about how he noticed I had a phone in my boot. I wasn’t sure when that behavior started, or what event it was spurred by, but his comment caught me by surprise. I supposed it was a peculiar thing to do, but it felt easy and comfortable and so made its way into my life as a natural habit. I still continue this behavior, and occasionally will receive similar comments that serve no purpose other than to point out, and verify, that there is a phone in my boot. Only once in the airport did a man claim with joy, “Oh, my wife does that, too!”

While I think that the boot itself solves the problem of phone storage/ferrying without physical design manipulation, it could probably be improved upon. For instance, sometimes the shaft of my boot has so much free room inside that my phone slips all the way down to my ankle, making retrieval actually quite difficult. This was not a problem I encountered until recently, needing to replace an older pair of boots with a newer one with more supple leather and a wider shaft. I think installing a small stopper somewhere within the boot, one that was unobtrusive and comfortable for my calf, would greatly alleviate my strain in reaching for my phone when it’s fallen too far.