So I will preface this by saying that I am somewhat of a "disgruntled Toms customer". PLENTY of people wear and love Toms. I, however, am not one of them. When Toms first came out, I was a little surprised that the trend took off. They were the most flimsy looking shoes I'd seen, rivaling only to the "ninja" shoes that I used to wear in middle school... ok, I'll be honest, I wore a variation of them a few years back, but they were leopard print so I don't really put them in the same category. I was drawn to the grey wool Toms and finally decided to try them out.
A couple of things I noticed after wearing them:
- Unless you wear sock liners, they make your feet stink. And I mean, stink. I hate wondering if the person next me can smell my feet... since I can! Who wants to be thinking that all day?!? Sock liners, however, tend to slip down given the way the shoe fits (allowing your heel to move up and down slightly as you walk). So you may have to chose between stinky feet or uncomfortable liners that keep slipping down all day... tough choice...
- The back of my heel (below my achilles tendon) ached after wearing them. And not from any kind of rubbing... something about the style of the shoe put an odd strain on it and it is now sensitive to the touch even when I don't wear the shoes! Now, I am the Shoethinker. I own LOTS of pairs of shoes... and don't have a single pair that hurt as much as my Toms do. I have too many shoes to tolerate the ones that hurt my feet.
- They have almost zero traction. If you're walking on a smooth surface, use caution. They are slippery. I work in an old building with wood floors and I am always on guard, especially on the stairs. To fall would be bad... to fall in front of my students, even worse! My guess is that it would take the design team at Toms about 2 seconds to add a couple of pieces of rubber to add more grip to the soles, but then again, I am not in the shoe manufacturing business so perhaps I am off here, but it doesn't sound like a tough fix.
- Toms don't offer much support. And yes, I know you can tell that just by looking at them and I wasn't expecting them to provide much, but it is worth mentioning. I can feel almost every pebble in the road when I wear these. I contemplated adding a more substantial insole, but the shape of Toms is narrower and I didn't want to worry about the insole not fitting just right.
The only thing I like about them? I do like the color of the grey wool Toms, and that they are lined with fleece. They're a good "colder-weather" winter option if the above factors don't bother you. For me, personally, I am going to forego my Toms and invest in a pair of Vans classic slip-ons. It is an entirely different look, not as dainty, but I'm fine with that:).
No comments:
Post a Comment