Tuesday, November 11, 2008

On a slippery slope...

To call me a man of strong moral conviction or a man with a very strong sense of style would be a lie. However, I have had one code which have guided me through thick and thin throughout the years, at least from my teen age days. This code of mine is simply:
"I don't wear sweatpants at home"

In sports activities there is a justified reason for the existence of sweatpants, but not in the home setting. Since I am now in a salaryman job I wear the suit at work and change to something more comfortable when I get home, but I still wear normal comfortable pants and never sweatpants. Why is this, you might wonder? I feel that starting to wear sweatpants is a slippery slope down to a place I don't want to end up in... You start with sweatpants occasionally at home and before you know it you gladly go to the supermarket in them together with a sauce stained sweatshirt and crappy sandals. There are many of them where I live and I refuse to end up like them. Now, this code of honor is something I live by and it really hasn't caused me any discomfort or trouble at all until a recent ethical dilemma.

Just recently Ms. Sunshine came with some of her wonderful gifts again, stuff that she has accumulated through her work in the fashion industry. She gave me a pair of very fancy, brand name cargo sweatpants. I tried them on and they fit perfectly, feel extremely comfortable and look nothing like the type of sweatpants that I usually hate on. In fact, I'm wearing them right now and feel very comfortable in them and somewhat stylish. However, how much I try to rationalize it, I cannot escape the simple fact: "I'm wearing sweatpants at home". But with these fancy sweatpants I feel that I can relax my rule a little bit, but I am afraid that I'm on a slippery slope down to oblivion now...

I brought up this issue and my ethical dilemma with Luke in a recent conversation, he listened carefully to my dilemma (he agrees with my basic stance on sweatpants) and gave the following advice:

1. Use extreme caution
2. Limit the times/week you wear them
3. Limit the amount of time
4. Be very careful what you wear them with
5. NEVER EVER leave the house with them on

I feel that this advice is sound and something I need to stick to in these times of temptation!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Won't be long then before you'll be shuffling down to the local pachinko parlour in your 100 yen slippers?

(Disclaimer: I own no sweatpants, and never have).

Anonymous said...

Shit! Iv´e already slipped down the slippery slope without realizing it. Now i will attempt to climb up and restore my dignity!

owenandbenjamin said...

HOLY CRAP! That picture.

Anonymous said...

OMG who is that in the pic?

You know that's what happened to my husband. He started wearing tracky dacks as we call them in australia, and he got so comfy, he wears them everywhere, even out shopping! I'm so embarrassed...the other night we went to a friends house for dinner and he wore them out to dinner! OMG...i need some advice, what should i do? How do i get him to stop wearing them everywhere??

Mr. Salaryman said...

Nakayoshi - I'm sorry if I'm the one that has to break the news to you, but if he goes to a dinner at a friend's place in it I think he's beyond redemption.

My advice to you would be to salvage what you can, you can for instance try to make sure that he wears a suit, tie and jacket with the pants at least!

Anonymous said...

What if you just consider them as cargo pants. Would you "gladly go to the supermarket in them together with a sauce stained sweatshirt and crappy sandals" if you thought of them as cargo pants? If you wouldn't, then you should be safe.

Anonymous said...

Sweatpants are actually on runways now (or last year). Fashion forward you are.

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