Monday, August 18, 2008

A review on shoes... Or rather Birkenstock sandals.

Yeah yeah, I know it's not like a guy to write anything about footwear.  It's one of those things women are more likely to write about.  In any case, the particular reason why I'm writing about it is I recently bought  anew pair of sandals and they are THE most comfortable pair I've ever worn.

For some time I had considered getting a new pair of sandals because the ones I had were pretty old.  I'm not much of a shoe person, I prefer sandals over shoes because I like something that I can easily slip on and off.  I only limit myself to wearing one pair of shoe/sandals, and the new pair I planned on buying would be something I would wear regardless of the occasion, including work.

I've had my old pair of sandals for over a year now they made this distinct squeaky sound each time I took a step and started becoming trademark trait of mine.  The squeaky noise was from the type of rubbery material used.  The old pair of sandals I had were some blue polo Adidas, and they are actually pretty good sandals, but the noise reached a point to where it annoyed the hell out of me, and no footwear should make noise as far as I'm concerned.

[caption id="attachment_325" align="alignright" width="300" caption="These are the Taupe Suede Arizona sandals I bought from Birkenstock."]These are shoes I bought from Birkenstock.[/caption]

I had mentioned getting new sandals, and my friend (lets just refer to him as 'Socrates') highly recommended a type of footwear called Birkenstock.  He has owned his pair for nearly 4 years, and claimed they are the most comfortable pair of shoes/sandals he's ever worn.  He got his pair prior to going to college, and his sandals have lasted him pretty well considering where he's been with them.  'Socrates' kicked the shit out of his sandals, claiming to have worn them in the rain, mud on numerous occasions and considering his pair of shoes are 4 years old, they looked to be in pretty good condition.

Ok so I was convinced and I figured I'd give Birkenstock a shot.  Birkenstock isn't a name that I've ever heard of, then again I'm not that shoe savvy either.  No local shoe store seemed to carry them in stock.  After searching on Google, I found that there was a Birkenstock specialty store was about 32 miles from where I live... Like hell I'm going to drive that far for a pair of shoes.  I decided to look them up online and sure enough, they had an online store where you could purchase them.

I found the pair of sandals I liked, which Birkenstock called the Taupe Suede Arizona.  I was pretty shocked at the price tag attached: $110.  In my entire 25 years of living, I have never spent more then $30 on a pair of shoes.  I had expected the sandals to be at most like $60-$70 judging by the pair I saw from 'Socrates.'  I saw that they had a 30 day money back guarantee so I figured I'd have nothing to lose.   My other concern was that different types of footwear tend to have different shoe size standards.  For example: I'm a size 11 for Sandals and a size 12 for shoes.  The Birkenstock store had a chart with a comparison of the shoe sizes and recommend I get size 11.  I add the pair of sandals to my cart, and go to check out and considering the price I was paying, they threw in free shipping.

[caption id="attachment_326" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Top view of my Birkenstock sandals."]Top view of my Birkenstock sandals.[/caption]

A week later my sandals arrive, I open the box and put them on and my god, I thought my feet had an orgasm.  These things are incredibly comfortable.  The majority of material used for the sandal is Suede, a type of leather that come from the under side of the skin used either lamb, deer, pig or goat.  (Sorry PETA, I really don't care!)  The material for the sole is EVA, which I have no idea what it is exactly, but according to Google, it's a common sole shoemakers use.  I know it's a bit early to give an opinion on these shoes, but I've been wearing these all weekend and I'm quite happy with them so far.  It's probably going to take a week or two before I can fully break these things in.  All and all these are definately the best pair of sandals I've ever bought.