Need advice regarding cool (not hot) shoes

In My Humble Opinion
1

I work in a professional setting. On weekends and evenings if I’m at work I can slip off my shoes and socks, wear sandals, go barefoot - whatever. However, during the 9-5 I kind of have to keep some sort of decorum simulation going. I find that wearing shoes - I’m currently wearing leather Rockport dress shoes - make me warm to the point of narcolepsy.

I could find shoes that looked professional - or even halfway professional, but still above sneakers - I’d double my productivity. I need shoes that feel barefoot. Please help before I fall asleep - again.

2

I am not sure how half-way professional they are, but have you thought about some kind of cloth (cotton) shoe. Maybe something like Chinese flats?

3

Probably too unprofessional, and way too girly, especially since I’m a guy. If I wore those I’d give way to my deep not-so repressed desire to be Pai Chan, and then there would be hell to pay.

I need shoes that a casually dressed doctor or lawyer might get away with on a not-much-client contact -but-still-possible day. Shoes that are less eccentric than a grad student’s or shoes that a non-nutty professor might wear on a day when they are teaching.

4

Hmmm, you can get away with more casual shoes when they’re black, but I see that most of the shoes for men in the sneaker genre are far too sneaker-y looking, or they’re leather again, which doesn’t put you any further ahead.

Here you go - those might do the trick.

5

Whoops, sorry. :smack: Hmmm… what about something like this? A canvas shoe can be pretty unassuming. It probably wouldn’t work for a lawyer. This might, but I am not sure how cool they are.

6

Can you get away with not-too-flamboyent deck shoes or loafers? They tend to be less hot than lace-up shoes and you can get away with them in a business casual situation, but it’s hard to tell from the OP just how “professional” your workplace is.

7

I’ve done deck shoes with some success, but you’re still displaying nekkid ankle if you go without socks, as though I were going sailing later. Loafers are still pretty hot.

I guess I’m thinking that somewhere, someone has applied all the gore-tex mesh lightweight running shoe tech to a more dressy shoe.

8

My suggestion is to see if any of the Crocs line are suitable. These and these* have side vent holes, these and these have canvas uppers.
*Previously linked by heraldgwena.