Since the fateful day I saw that skater boy pass me, I knew something was up with Funko's Footwear. More and more people were wearing old sneakers, dirty boots, scuffed dress shoes. Not to mention there was an uptick in distinctive looking people in town. I had to investigate what was happening. But how? I couldn't just stalk customers around to see if the shoes were changing them. I couldn't afford to be arrested for investigating potential supernatural activity again. I doubt the judge would be as lenient the third time around... No, I needed to be more cautious and stealthy. It's lucky there's a decent coffee shop across the road with a discreet and unobstructed view of the shoe store.
For the rest of the month, I staked out a spot by the window and made a list of the clientele who wandered into Funko's. Fortunately if you have a notepad and a laptop handy, nobody suspects a thing. I took note of who used the store, what shoes they were wearing when they left, and any distinct characteristics I could use to identify them around town. Over time, I managed to sort people into three groups. The kids and teenagers who leave wearing shabby, oversized footwear. The older, mature men who leave wearing brand, spanking new footwear. And the normies, who just browse and leave with nothing. Interestingly, I noticed that no women or girls ever entered the store during my stake-outs. Not even mothers dragging their boys in for school shoes. It's like they weren't even aware it existed.
Now armed with a list of customers, I began to notice them outside of the store more often. A majority of the time, their changes were subtle. Most people wouldn't notice anything different. But I did. They were taller, or slimmer, or even more muscular. Things that should take months and years to obtain were occurring in days, or even hours. They might even change mentally, getting smarter or more creative. This wasn't as noticeable outside of "cliques", in a manner of speaking. I've noticed nerds bulk up and dumb down to become stupid jocks. I've noticed delinquents clean up their act and become tidy, teacher's pets. There was even an instance of a mohawk wielding punk suddenly losing his anarchist passion and finding a passion for Christianity instead. The only way to identify them as the same person was the footwear they bought from Funko's.
Now, all of this could possibly happen naturally. Maybe I'm seeing kids experimenting with their lives and naturally growing up, or men going through mid-life crises and working to clean up their lives. But that doesn't explain the others. The ones who become new people entirely, in ways that only supernatural causes could explain. For example, In my first week of the stake-out, I saw a white, older man enter the store. He was in his mid-fifties with thin, greying hair, and a big, flabby belly with an accompanying pair of moobs that stretched out his shirt. He left wearing the smallest shoes I'd seen someone buy from the store. They were impeccably white with a black tick embroidered on the outsides. How he even managed to fit them on his bigger feet I had no idea. I didn't think anything of it until the following week when I was at the gym. I saw someone wearing those same small, white sneakers. But this man, he was the complete opposite to the man who bought them. The most striking difference was the rich black tone of his skin, glistening from his intense work-out. He also happened to be more than half the age of the man who bought them! He had long dreadlocks that were tied back to show off his symmetrical facial features; his intense eyes, prominent nose, and full lips. His manicured, black stubble almost matched the smooth, dark shade of his perfect skin. He was wearing a tank top that clung to his flawlessly sculpted abs and heavy pecs, pumping hundreds of pounds of weight like it was nothing. Maybe it was a complete stranger with a similar pair of shoes. But that sort of coincidence hadn't occurred elsewhere. And I was a bit too intimidated at the time to ask if he used to be an old, white man...
Likewise, I recently saw a young teen enter with his father. He was the stereotypical nerdy teen with scrawny, gangly limbs, thick rimmed glasses and zits all over his face. He left the store wearing an unusual pair of suede cowboy boots, complete with spurs. They came up to his kneecaps and he was struggling to put one foot in front of the other without help. I watched the father and son enter a dusty pick-up truck and drive off. I saw that same truck again a few days later, parked outside of the coffee shop. There was a large, burly man a bit older than myself delivering produce to the organic food store next door. He had a cowboy hat atop his head, flattening his messy, shoulder length hair and casting a shadow over his weather beaten face. A thick, brown goatee tinged with grey surrounded his lips and rounded out his square jaw, while his cheeks seemed to have a case of perma-stubble. His shirt looked snug against his thick torso, the sleeves rolled up to reveal sturdy, hairy forearms and the top buttons undone to showcase his furry chest. His skin-tight jeans left very little to the imagination, it looked like he'd stuffed a cucumber down them. However despite his overt masculine appeal, my heart instead skipped a beat when I saw his boots. A large pair of suede cowboy boots that came almost halfway up his calves. The exact same boots I saw on that scrawny kid not long ago! They were practically one of a kind, with stylised gold embroidering, chunky leather buckles, and bright golden spurs! I couldn't get another major opportunity pass. I abandoned my table in haste, it was lucky that nothing was stolen, and sprinted to the gruff looking man as he leaned against his truck, lighting up a cigar. I just had to interview him! But after one look at me and my journal, he scowled and growled at me to fuck off before entering his truck and quickly driving away, leaving me very disappointed. I was so close to finding answers!
Which brings me to the weirdest thing I've noticed. Nobody else seems to notice or even talk about what was happening! I've spoken to people around town about this mysterious store that literally showed up overnight, and most weren't even aware a shop had appeared. They think I have an overactive imagination, that it had to have taken a few weeks to open, but I have pictures proving otherwise. Not that they believe me. Not in town, not even on social media. I searched for Funko's Footwear online, finding that it was a small chain store operating throughout the southwest USA. It had a crude website that sold shoes of all types, but nothing unusual aside from no delivery options. Further research found that there were rave reviews for the store. People saying their shoes were flawless and fit perfectly. Nobody had a negative thing to say, and nobody seemed to bring up the abnormal body changing experiences I'd been witnessing. I tried asking those reviewers for comments yet nobody wanted to talk. Many called me a paranoid, conspiracy nut-job for even suggesting something was wrong. But you can't deny the facts! People were changing and it was Funko's fault! I just needed some hard evidence, some actual proof...