NOTE: The purpose of this article is to serve as a general guide on finding a quality shoes independent of geographical location or style preferences. However there will be some specific items recommended.
Never before have we had such an overwhelming number of choices when shopping. Today, an average supermarket carries more than forty thousand items and the shoe shops are no exception to this trend. All these choices make the process of finding the right shoes a real ordeal.
At first you may think, if you know what you want and have a strict criteria when choosing the shoes the choices are very quickly reduced to only a handful of quality items and the problem is solved. However if you ever tried to pull that off, you have either failed, got really lucky or went through long process of research and testing before reaching your goal.
At least for me, the last resolvement was true. In an attempt to save some of your time, I am writing this article.
The first step is the biggest one. You have to forget about the shoes you have and focus on the activities you do. Based on those activities you figure out what shoes you need. You have to control the urge to think of too many things and activities you occasionally do or might want to do. If you are rock climbing few times a year you probably want to lend a good pair of climbing shoes when you need them. Otherwise you will have a pair of sholes using up space in your home and collecting dust for most of the year.
First let’s cover the basics. Wast majority of us is working in an office and living in cities, thus we all need some regular casual every day shoes. Unfortunately today it is relatively hard to find vegan option for good casual shoes so I will be focusing on sustainable, locally produced, quality leather shoes.
For this one you will need to do a tiny bit of research on your own. Find the nearest producer of hand made shoes around the place where you live. These people that are still making shoes by hand (despite the fact that their trade has been industrialized completely in 19th century) really know what they are doing. Their shoes are much more ergonomic, durable and just overall better quality. But my favorite thing about these shoes is their maintainability! These shoes are made to last you a lifetime and can be repaired, modified and customized however you want.
I personally got lucky to have found a great leather shoes producer in radius of less than 50km which makes, among others, my favorite wide toe box super comfy leather shoes.
If you are like me and don’t wear suits, these can also be used for more formal events if dressed up properly by the rest of the attire.
The shop where I got lucky is located in Austria and is called Waldviertler. Many similar production operations do offer worldwise shipping. For example here is one in New York and Oslo.
When in casual mode, you should focus on the health of your feet. You also want something very comfy. And on top of all that, if the sports shoe is very durable, you get the kudos for sustainability and minimalism since you won’t need to change them as often.
Sounds too good to be true? Nope! I found Xero shoes Ipari model which is amazing.
However beware that these are so good for you that they might take some time to get used to. They give absolutely no support and have a total barefoot feel to them. If you decide to go for them, plan for “acclimatization” period until you get completely comfortable with them.
If no support is too much for you, or your health or activities do not allow it, try some of many more minimalist shoes out there. In general try to get the zero-drop shoes.
In the really hot weather you probably want to enjoy some open footwear be it flip-flops or some form of sandals. Following up on the previous section I would first recommend some options from the Xero shoes like Amuri Cloud or Z-Trail. If you don’t mind some support, the best and most popular option out there is the Birkenstock footwear.
If you are in the market for something totally crazy, I can recommend the Free Your Feet socks.
If you are really active in some kind of sport or activity that requires you to have a specialized footwear, get it! Since you minimized the rest of your shoes collection you can now afford to have a pair or two of specialized shoes you might enjoy on the regular basis.
Some of you might not be into the barefoot feel due to some health problems and therefore need running shoes. I on the other hand am big on hiking, and in bad weather conditions or colder months, you can’t really use your xero shoes and similar footwear. That is why I got my trusty Salomon XA Pro 3D hiking Gorotex shoes (now they have a new model out called X-Chase). They are the best protective shoe I ever had, perfect temperature regulation, very light, and fit actually better than a glove. I can run in these better than in any sneakers I ever worn.
But my main reason for owning them is not for hiking. I ride my bike to work every day no matter what weather is outside. Yes, even rain and snow. Thus, these are invaluable to me in these situations.
If you apply these general advices on organizing and planing your collection of footwear, you will end up with only about four to five pairs of shoes that are ergonomic, high quality, dependable and sustainable. This way you can invest more in having better shoes instead of more shoes. Happy walking!
