I have bought slip-on shoes for forty years. This is the first pair I am writing a letter about
I have bought slip-on shoes for forty years. This is the first pair I am writing a letter about
Six things the Diane gets right that slip-on shoes get wrong, from a woman who had started dreading anywhere with a lot of floor.
Peggy Dalton · Customer · Austin, Texas · 5 min read
I am 63, I do not work for anybody, and I have never sold a shoe in my life. What I have done is buy slip-on shoes, for forty years, because somewhere in my forties I stopped wanting to bend down to my feet every morning, and I have been let down by nearly every pair since. So this is not a review. It is a woman who had started planning her days around how much floor there would be, saying that has stopped.
The pair I am writing about is called the Diane, from Iris & Nora, a small boutique here in Austin that has been quietly dressing women our age for a few years now. I first saw them on a woman at the gate next to mine at Austin airport, and when the boutique later asked if they could put my letter up for others to read, I said yes, on the condition I could be completely honest in it.
Here is what forty years of slip-ons taught me. They come in two piles. The pile you can actually slip on, which gives you nothing underneath, so that by the far end of the store your feet are telling you about it. And the pile that gives you something underneath, which turns out to have laces, or a strap, or a back you have to work your heel into with a finger, which is not slipping on at all. Somewhere around sixty I stopped buying from either pile and quietly started dreading airports, big stores, museums, and anywhere else with a lot of floor.
Easy to get on and nothing underneath, or something underneath and a fight to get on. I chose easy, and I paid for it by the far end of every store.
The Diane is the first slip-on I have owned that refuses both piles, and having walked a terminal, a grocery store and most of a farmers market in them, I can tell you it comes down to six things.
The morning they arrived. Red, which I never buy, with a sole like a small mattress. I nearly sent them back unopened.
They slip on, and the back is open
You put your foot in and you are shod. No laces, no strap, no bending, and no heel to work in with a finger, because there is no back at all. It is a mule, properly, and at my age I count getting shoes on standing up as a feature worth paying for on its own.
Slide in and go. No bending, no fiddling. I have them by the door and I am out in ten seconds.
Carol R., Round RockThe top is mesh, so your feet stay cool
The whole upper is a soft honeycomb mesh you can see daylight through, with one wide soft band across the front to hold your foot. On a long walk in Texas heat that is the difference between fine and finished. I checked in full sun, walking the market. Fine.
The mesh and the band across the front. That is the whole top of the shoe, and it is enough.
My feet do not cook in these. First summer shoe with a closed toe I can wear in August.
Diane M., GeorgetownThere is something underneath you
The footbed is shaped and cushioned, so your foot sits in something rather than on something. Every slip-on I owned before was a flat piece of nothing. This is not that. I did not know how much I had been missing until the second day.
The footbed is shaped. Actually shaped. I stood in line at the pharmacy for twenty minutes and did not think about my feet once.
Patricia L., Cedar ParkThe sole is thick and soft, with a curve to it
The white sole is thick, softer than it looks, and curved a little front to back, so each step rolls rather than lands. It sounds like a small thing. Across a whole airport terminal it is not a small thing. I walked it twice, once for a coffee and once because the gate changed, and sat down afterwards without shifting my weight.
The sole from the side. Thick, soft, curved. This is why the far end of the store is fine now.
The thick soft sole is the reason. Walked the whole zoo with the grandkids and my feet were fine at the end. Fine.
Linda K., San MarcosThey weigh almost nothing, and they grip
For all that sole, they are light, lighter than the sandals they replaced. And the bottom has a proper ribbed texture, so a wet floor by the gate, a tiled store, a damp porch, none of it is an event. Light on the way up, steady on the way down.
Light as a slipper but they hold the floor. Wore them through a wet grocery store and never once slid.
Janet S., New BraunfelsEight colours, one white sole, sizes 4.5 to 11
The red I own, a black, a khaki, a grey, a dusty pink, a dark grey and two blues, and every one of them sits on the same white sole, so they go with the jeans and the linen pants and the summer dresses without a moment’s thought. They run from a 4.5 all the way to an 11, the same shape the whole way. I went back for the black. The woman from the airport owns three, and I understand why.
Six of the eight on the bed. Same shoe, same white sole, different mornings.
Bought the red for the summer and the black for everything else. They go with every pair of pants I own.
Maureen T., PflugervilleThe Diane, against the slip-ons you have been buying
You can find a slip-on shoe for seventy dollars almost anywhere. I know, because I have a rack of them by the door, each easy to get on and useless by the far end of the store. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.
Easy on, nothing underneath
Or something underneath, and a back you fight with
A closed top that cooks your feet by August
A flat thin sole that lands every step
Smooth bottom, careful on a wet floor
Slip on, open back, no bending
A shaped, cushioned footbed you sit in
A mesh top that breathes in full sun
A thick soft curved sole that rolls each step
Light, with a proper ribbed grip
About the price
The Diane is $41.95 at the moment. It was $84.00.
I will pass on what the boutique told me, which is that this is their final summer sale as they close this chapter of the shop, and once this stock is gone, it is gone. Their words, not mine. What I can tell you from my side is that at that price I did not deliberate long over the black, and that the middle sizes were already thin when I went back.
I also did what I imagine you are doing now and read the reviews before I ordered. Just over three hundred of them, sitting at 4.2 stars. Not the suspiciously perfect five you see on some websites, which if I am honest made me trust it rather more. The same six things I have just walked you through come up in them, over and over, in other women’s words.
By the front door, next to the carry-on. They have not been put away since June.
If you have started dreading anywhere with a lot of floor, this is the pair I would put in your hands myself, while your size is still there.
Peggy
DIANE | Breathable Orthopedic Slip-On Mules
- Slips on, open back, no bending
- Mesh top that breathes in the heat
- Shaped, cushioned footbed
- Thick soft sole with a curve, so each step rolls
- Light, with a ribbed grip underneath
- Eight colours, US 4.5 to 11
- FREE shipping & 100% happiness guarantee
Final summer sale on now. The middle sizes go first.