As promised, I'll provide a brief review. (Disclaimer: I received these for free in a giveaway)
First was picking out a color. They have a few choices in color, nice two tones that is a plus. I thought the brown/black looked very classy.
These look much more 'factory made' than other minimalist sandals with just a cut out piece of flat vibram or similar rubber sole. That could be good or bad, I like the crafty hand made look myself, but I think the general population will accept these more as normal.
In fact the main part, the soles, are made in China. Being factory made gives them some things others can't, like the molded sole with the heel cup, and the foam inserts in the front half. While I generally like a perfectly flat sole without any structure or 'features' I find the heel cup doesn't take away from the minimal experience and might help a bit just keeping the soles better centered if you tend to wear em loose like I do. They may help to keep sand and small stones out as well, but I've not been able to test that. They could very well hold small pebbles in too, if they make it in. The forefoot area has a thin EPDM layer inset into the vibram sole. It does provide a nice smooth feeling of luxury, without a bunch of cushion that we minimalists generally don't like. @ or 3 mm of EPDM doesn't really amount to much cushion, and will likely compress to thinner and more dense in short order. So not much to worry about with 'too much cushion'. Now if it had extra EPDM on top of an already thick rubber sole than no, but this model was nicely done so both are minimal and the thickness remains uniform and about right for most.
Stephen was also very helpful in helping me decide which size I was. Even though I had bought a few pairs of minimalist sandals in the past, they were all the trace-your-foot style so my true size was never really questioned. I was shocked at just how small of a size I really was compared to regular shoes which I guess I've been ordering around 2 or 2.5 full sizes larger than my true size just to get a non-cramped toe box. Still my foot shape wasn't a perfect match, despite my lack of toe spread and slightly crunched in big and pinky toes I still went off the edge just a tad at the pinky toes, while the pointy part of the front was still longer than my feet. But I was close enough to not matter, I can't feel the edge under my toes and don't feel there is extra material out front, they feel very perfect while walking.
Tread and traction seem to be about the most you could get in a sandal, won't know about ice/snow for a little while yet.
Walking is about all I've done in them though. I will update this review if run in them. But for now I despise running in any shoes, and sandals even more for some reason. In fact running in most any footwear I've tried causes me some cramps in my foot that I've never quite figured out. Maybe later. But for casual wear these are great. I wear them to work on nightshifts and weekends when management isn't around and we don't have to dress in business casual. And I wear them when I have to run into a shop or restaurant, etc.
The straps feel nice and the adjustment is pretty slick, just give a tug to the adjusters than are on each side of the heel. The only thing I'm not sure on is the rubber toe post. At first I thought it felt better than strapping, but occasionally I get a bit of abrasion against it but typically only on my left foot. I could have a bit of a gait issue causing that foot to move or put more pressure on it, or maybe I just have it adjusted a bit differently. It's relatively minor, just feels like the rubber drags a bit harder on the skin. For a longer go perhaps it could be lubed. For casual wear and walking up to a couple miles these have been great.
Jeans aren't the best to show off sandals with, especially when they normally ride about to the ground, but it was cold today! So I pulled them up a little so you could see the sandals.
First was picking out a color. They have a few choices in color, nice two tones that is a plus. I thought the brown/black looked very classy.
These look much more 'factory made' than other minimalist sandals with just a cut out piece of flat vibram or similar rubber sole. That could be good or bad, I like the crafty hand made look myself, but I think the general population will accept these more as normal.
In fact the main part, the soles, are made in China. Being factory made gives them some things others can't, like the molded sole with the heel cup, and the foam inserts in the front half. While I generally like a perfectly flat sole without any structure or 'features' I find the heel cup doesn't take away from the minimal experience and might help a bit just keeping the soles better centered if you tend to wear em loose like I do. They may help to keep sand and small stones out as well, but I've not been able to test that. They could very well hold small pebbles in too, if they make it in. The forefoot area has a thin EPDM layer inset into the vibram sole. It does provide a nice smooth feeling of luxury, without a bunch of cushion that we minimalists generally don't like. @ or 3 mm of EPDM doesn't really amount to much cushion, and will likely compress to thinner and more dense in short order. So not much to worry about with 'too much cushion'. Now if it had extra EPDM on top of an already thick rubber sole than no, but this model was nicely done so both are minimal and the thickness remains uniform and about right for most. Stephen was also very helpful in helping me decide which size I was. Even though I had bought a few pairs of minimalist sandals in the past, they were all the trace-your-foot style so my true size was never really questioned. I was shocked at just how small of a size I really was compared to regular shoes which I guess I've been ordering around 2 or 2.5 full sizes larger than my true size just to get a non-cramped toe box. Still my foot shape wasn't a perfect match, despite my lack of toe spread and slightly crunched in big and pinky toes I still went off the edge just a tad at the pinky toes, while the pointy part of the front was still longer than my feet. But I was close enough to not matter, I can't feel the edge under my toes and don't feel there is extra material out front, they feel very perfect while walking.
Tread and traction seem to be about the most you could get in a sandal, won't know about ice/snow for a little while yet.
Walking is about all I've done in them though. I will update this review if run in them. But for now I despise running in any shoes, and sandals even more for some reason. In fact running in most any footwear I've tried causes me some cramps in my foot that I've never quite figured out. Maybe later. But for casual wear these are great. I wear them to work on nightshifts and weekends when management isn't around and we don't have to dress in business casual. And I wear them when I have to run into a shop or restaurant, etc.
The straps feel nice and the adjustment is pretty slick, just give a tug to the adjusters than are on each side of the heel. The only thing I'm not sure on is the rubber toe post. At first I thought it felt better than strapping, but occasionally I get a bit of abrasion against it but typically only on my left foot. I could have a bit of a gait issue causing that foot to move or put more pressure on it, or maybe I just have it adjusted a bit differently. It's relatively minor, just feels like the rubber drags a bit harder on the skin. For a longer go perhaps it could be lubed. For casual wear and walking up to a couple miles these have been great.
Jeans aren't the best to show off sandals with, especially when they normally ride about to the ground, but it was cold today! So I pulled them up a little so you could see the sandals.
