Around the ranch I wear a pedometer and by the end of the day I’ve usually logged about 8 miles in cowboy boots or workboots. Afterward there’s nothing nicer than just letting my feet hang out for a while and catch a little air. Later in the day if I have to go out in public, I’ll usually slip on a pair of Borns. They’re like sex for my feet.
I would get a pair of Crocs for tooling around the landscaped grounds but I can’t imagine they won’t end up smelling like total ass in about a week. Can anybody speak to that?
That’s one of the reasons I like mine. I have smelly feet and so far so good. Also, I think you can just throw them in the washing machine or dishwasher.
I’m a messy dude, and I’m not particularly sensitive to germs and such. But for some reason the idea of putting my shoes in the dishwasher sends me whatever the opposite of “over the moon” is.
Well, what’s really funny is how subjective taste is. I have a pair of Crocs, and while I won’t argue that they’re attractive, I find Birks far uglier and wouldn’t be caught dead wearing them.
My husband has stinky feet, and his Crocs don’t smell at all. The material they’re made of is purported to be bacteria- and odor-resistant, and our experience seems to support that.
I have to admit, when the Crocs first came out, I was struck at just how ugly they were. Part of that is just that clogs, in general, are sort of a clunky footwear. Make them out of what appears to be rubber and you combine all the aesthetic appeal of clogs with all the warm charm of synthetic materials. Now, make the result day-glo pink or lavender and you can have something really eye-searingly WTF were you thinking?
Looking at the Crocs web page, they seem to have refined some of their designs – lowered the profile and toned down the colors – to the point where I’d actually consider wearing some of their models. But my feelings about the bright pink clown shoe models hasn’t changed, regardless of how comfortable they might be.
Then again, I wander around in ratty sneakers or Tevas, so if I’m allowed to be indifferent about the appearance of my feet, I can’t really judge total strangers. (Well, I can and do, but I have to accept my cognitive inconsistencies.)
I agree that Crocs aren’t the best looking sandals around, but I recently tried a pair on at an outlet store and was amazed at how comfortable they were. But even the outlet price was kinda steep, so I held off.
Last week, Big 5 had a sale on some Crocs knockoffs called Komodos. $12.95 a pair! Went to the store, tried them on, and found them to be every bit as comfy as the original. They’re my new casual summer footwear, but definitely not with socks!
And, BTW, my feet sweat terribly in the summer, and the ventilation holes in these do a very good job of evaporating the moisture.
See, I don’t know whether it’s the merino wool socks or diligent boot-swapping (or both), but stinky feet ain’t one of my problems. However, with just about everything but the Andromeda Strain in our irrigation/sprinkler water, I figured a non-absorbent plastic surface would be a freaking Petri dish of funk. Interesting.
Err. Not to insult anyone, but I wear a good pair of shoes for years and years… until the soles wear too much… and they smell the same way they did the first day I put them on: Leather and the hint of a small bit of talc which I put into them before wearing them the first time.
If your shoes resemble petri dishes, or your feet smell like an ass with an onion in it, then you should put on your Crocs, moccasins, ballet slippers… whatever… just go. You need to see doctor, or maybe a nutritionist, or possibly even an exorcist as soon as possible.
Fashion, or the lack of it, may be the least of your problems.
I like Crocs for night shift at work and for the operating theatre (I have 2 pairs, the OT pair doesn’t ever get used anywhere else).
They have the following advantages
I have small feet, they come in kids sizes- for this reason I can’t wear Birkenstocks, the Birks in my size are designed for 6 year olds and usually have pink butterflys on them.
They are easy to put on and off, so I can crawl into and out of bed without wasting time putting on trainers.
They are lightweight and comfy, my feet don’t hurt as much at the end of a shift as they used to, and I have very high arches and plantar fasciitis, so they must be OK.
I am exposed to many, many body fluids on a daily basis. I can put my Crocs under a tap, wash them with antibacterial handwash, dry them, and spray them with alcohol spray and they are good to go in about 3 minutes, the same can’t be said of trainers or leather shoes.
As to how I present myself- it’s 3am, I’m wearing scrubs, a stethoscope and a harrassed expression, if you have issues with my footwear, feel free to get medical help from someone else.
Well, showing one’s toes, mostly. I hate seeing people just out and about in the suburbs with bare feet and sandles.
But in a general sense, I’ve always felt like sandles just shouldn’t be worn as general footwear, in the same sense that your not supposed to wear sweatpants just any old time. Maybe that makes me a snob, but I feel like these are functional clothing, and while there’s a time and a place for such things, outside of the proper context it just isn’t okay to wear them.
Do you use the ones with the holes in the top? That’s my only concern with Crocs + sox in the medical setting–they just don’t keep out those frequently splashed body fluids.
I have a pair of rubber Birkenstock clogs that are very Croc-like but have removable cork insoles and solid tops. They’re the only reason I survived med school and residency. They are about to enter their eighth year of service, and they’re due for their fourth set of insoles. I wouldn’t wear them in the hospital anymore, as they don’t have any tread left, but I can’t bring myself to replace them, so they’re perfect for the garden.
People have made fun of them ever since I bought them. Most of those same people are wearing Crocs everywhere now. Go figure.
I also have to agree with irishgirl that Crocs would be perfect for overnight shift work. A few years ago, I was a telephone operator, and, being at the bottom of the seniority food chain, I had my share of late and overnight shifts. I ended up switching from regular sneakers to Lands’ End’s All-Weather Moccasins because shoes with laces felt too tight in the middle of the night. (We were required to keep our shoes on at all times, even though we just sat at a desk all the time and our customers couldn’t see us.) Those were OK, but had Crocs existed (maybe they did, but I didn’t know about them), they would have been ideal.
My feet still like to relax at night, even if I am awake all night and sleeping during the day. I also brought a sweatshirt for when my body temperature would drop at about 3-4 am.
Apparently you can also put them in the dishwasher. I know; kinda scary.
Could they go into the autoclave, or would they warp / melt? If they could be autoclaved, I’d have to rethink whether they really were a good choice for the hospital. I’ll never agree that they belong at the office though.
