I had stopped walking anywhere in summer. This is a letter about the sandals that changed that
I had stopped walking anywhere in summer. This is a letter about the sandals that changed that
Six things the Rosalie gets right that summer sandals get wrong, from a woman who had started driving to the mailbox.
Peggy Dalton · Customer · Austin, Texas · 5 min read
Somewhere in the last few summers I became a woman who drives to places she could walk to. The market. The library. Once, and I am not proud of it, the mailbox at the end of the street. 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 summer sandals for forty years and stop walking in every one of them by the corner. So this is not a review. It is a woman who got her summer walks back, saying how.
The pair I am writing about is called the Rosalie, 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 the woman ahead of me on the Lady Bird Lake trail, 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 summers taught me. Summer sandals come in two piles. The flimsy pile, flip-flops and flat little slides that slap behind you and give up by the corner, so you stop walking. And the sensible pile, which does not hurt and looks like it was issued at a clinic, so you stop wanting to. Somewhere around sixty I stopped buying from either pile and quietly started driving.
Flimsy and sore by the corner, or sensible and looking like a nurse. I chose the car, and I missed the walking more than I let on.
The Rosalie is the first summer sandal I have owned that refuses both piles, and having walked the whole lake loop in them, I can tell you it comes down to six things.
The morning they arrived. Wine red, which I never buy, and a wedge, which I had written off. I nearly sent them back unopened.
The wedge lifts the whole foot, not just the heel
It is a wedge, so the lift runs the whole length of your foot instead of perching you on a heel. Nothing to wobble on, nothing to teeter off, and your ankle is not doing overtime the whole walk. I did the crushed-granite trail in them, the whole loop, and did not think about my feet once, which is the entire test.
The wedge, the closed heel and the strap. This is the whole engineering.
Walked three miles on the first day. The wedge lifts everything evenly and nothing wobbles. Steady as a sneaker, prettier by a mile.
Carol R., Round RockThe heel is closed and the ankle strap holds, so nothing slaps
A flip-flop slaps behind you with every step and your toes spend the whole walk gripping to keep it on. This one has a proper closed heel and a thin strap round the ankle, so the shoe moves with your foot instead of chasing it. You walk. The shoe comes too. That is all a sandal is supposed to do and almost none of them do it.
No slapping, no gripping with my toes. The ankle strap and closed back keep it exactly where it should be all day.
Diane M., GeorgetownThe toe is wide and open
Nothing is pinched, nothing is pointed, and your toes are not being asked to share a space designed for someone with fewer of them. Wide and open, the way a summer shoe should be, and with the T-strap up the middle it looks elegant rather than clumpy while it does it.
Room for my toes at last. Wide, open, and still a pretty shoe. I did not think that combination existed.
Patricia L., Cedar ParkThe footbed is shaped, with a little edge that keeps your foot home
The footbed is gently shaped, with a raised lip round the edge, so your foot sits in the shoe rather than on it and does not slide off the side on a camber. It is a small thing until you have walked a mile on a path that leans, and then it is the whole thing.
The T-strap and the toe band. They hold the foot without any hardware to hold you up.
The shaped footbed with the little edge is what makes them walkable. My foot stays put, even on the sloped bits of the trail.
Linda K., San MarcosThe sides are cut away, so your feet stay cool
Big open sides between the T-strap and the heel, so air gets to your feet the whole way round. In a Texas August that is not a small thing. I finished the loop with feet that were tired in the ordinary way and not hot in the miserable way, which I did not know a covered heel could manage.
Cool feet in July, in Austin, in a sandal that actually stays on. I did not think that combination existed.
Janet S., New BraunfelsFour colors, one soft taupe wedge, sizes 5 to 13
The wine red I own, a warm grey, a black and a tan brown, and every one of them sits on the same soft taupe wedge, so they go with the khakis and the linen skirt and the navy dress without a moment’s thought. And the sizes run honestly from a 5 to a 13, which is rarer than it should be. I went back for the black. The woman from the trail owns three, and I understand why.
The four of them on the bed. Same wedge, same shape, four different walks.
Wine red first, then the grey. Same taupe wedge on both so they go with everything, and I finally found my size 11.
Maureen T., PflugervilleThe Rosalie, against the summer sandals you have been buying
You can find a pair of summer sandals for a hundred dollars almost anywhere. I know, because I have a shelf of them, each abandoned by the corner. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.
Flat and flimsy, or a heel that wobbles
Slap behind you, toes gripping to keep them on
A flat footbed your foot slides off on a slope
Closed and hot, or open and useless
Abandoned by the corner, back in the car
A wedge that lifts the whole foot evenly
Closed heel and ankle strap, the shoe comes with you
Shaped footbed with an edge that keeps your foot home
Open sides, cool the whole way round
The whole lake loop, and home on foot
About the price
The Rosalie is $54.95 at the moment. It was $110.00.
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 popular 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, where the walking shoes live. The car keys are gathering dust.
If you have started driving to places you used to walk to, this is the pair I would put in your hands myself, while your size is still there.
Peggy
ROSALIE | T-Strap Wedge Sandals
- Wedge that lifts the whole foot, nothing to wobble on
- Closed heel and ankle strap, no slapping
- Wide open toe, shaped footbed with a raised edge
- Airy cut-away sides, cool all round
- Four colours on one soft taupe wedge
- US sizes 5 to 13
- FREE shipping & 100% happiness guarantee
Final summer sale on now. The popular sizes go first.