Do I just have ultra snowflake delicate feet?

[custardlover]

Or are all the people wearing the beautiful looking but razor sharp / flat as a pancake / rough edged sandals writhing in pain inside?

WHO BUYS AND WEARS THESE AND HOW? They look gorgeous but I know they are going to shred the skin off my toes/heels, they’re going to make me limp with damp and bloody digits, I will think of nothing other than the pain in my feel all day and eventually give up and cry and throw them away feeling like a feet failure.

I’d love there to be a secret method to wearing the strappy / glittery / pretty and delicate sandals that I just need to learn. Or do I need to just live with pain for beauty (I won’t)? Or are my feet just wrong somehow?

Yes, there are some shoes which is very obviously impossible from the start (and yet I have seen women wearing them on the street with my own eyes hence my original question as to HOW - am still hoping for a secret potion recipe DM’d to me…) and some others which are SECRETLY impossible - they pretend to be soft and yielding for the first 20 minutes of wearing - just long enough to buy them and perhaps walk to the tube and then become agony for the rest of the day when you can do f-all about them.

I would also very much like some shoe designers to get online and answer for themselves please, like what are you actually thinking?

Oh yes - the stealth attack! Just when you’ve worn them round the house, congratulating yourself on having found a really good pair and then… the tell-tale slight smarting on a toe or round the back… it gets worse… and before you know it you’re hobbling in a shoe full of blood.

Last year I threw my shoes into a bin in Covent Garden and walked in stockinged feet to a couple of shops to buy anything . I only hope a homeless person didn’t suffer like I did if they fished my shoes out and tried to wear them.

Im a foot shredder- in general I can blister and bleed from anything rubbing on my skin, but my feet are awful for it. I should have shares in blister plasters as I’ll wear them preventively and use body glide on my feet if I’m suspicious. With anything I can wear socks with I wear double layer socks which are blissful

I own plastic and non plastic birkies and a few other types of sandals. Unless I’m out I wear the comfy ones and keep the non comfy ones for outings (evenings and weekends) and use Compeed anti blister stick to prevent blisters.

I take a 5 and a half wide fit so those are the only size I wear. Which means I pay more.
I did however buy some normal width gorgeous very flat blue beaded sandals and put them on my industrial shoe stretcher and they were fine to wear after that. Its an ex cobblers shoe stretcher I bought off ebay years ago.
It works wonders for shoes that are not quite wide enough for my feet.

I’m the same. Why would anyone want completely flat, hard soles? I have been searching for sandals which are like a bouncy trainer sole, with comfy adjustable straps but don’t look like I’m going for a hike. Seems a pretty obvious summer sandal to me. But can’t find them. I tried on a pair of Tevas but wasn’t sure.

My only toe post type sandals are a cheap-ass Birkenstock copy that uses (leather, I checked) suede rather than plastic or anything hard/rough. They were supercomfortable from first wear - I also got some straight across ones that also have suede rather than hard leather that are good, but I'm still waiting for the footbed on those to finish settling, so they aren't quite right yet; I'll need to tighten the strap again when they're ready.

I've got a plastic shoe stretcher I bought from Amazon, less than £20 as I recall. It has saved a few shoes for me by stretching over my ridiculous high instep. The only failure was a lovely pair of Waldlaufer boots where the stitching at the base of the laces was tight and immovable. It seemed to press on all the little bones on top of my foot, actually felt quite sick with the pain. Of course these things never become apparent in the shop!

@TheyGrewUp my best shoes are Gabor Comfort. I have 3 pairs of their California moccasins in different colours. I bought some white ones in a sale and I wear them in summer with loose trousers or midi skirts and they look OK. Even Gabor sandals rub, though. I've never had comfy sandals ever.