I Think I've Recommended These Shoes Before ...

... but if so it was shortly after I got them. Now I've had two pairs of them for, respectively, ten months and seven months (I just checked my Amazon order history), and I think I should recommend them more highly.

They're about $40 from Amazon (not an affiliate link). I think I paid closer to $30.

I've worn them every day for, as I said, ten months and seven months. I've worn them in the house. I've worn them in the yard. I've worn them on road walks. I wore the first pair to PorcFest. Other than occasionally wearing hiking or dress boots for an outing to a club or whatever, these are what I wear.

The results so far:

Other than minor tread wear (less than I'd expect for the amount of time they've spent on sand, roadway, sidewalk, etc.), and very slight fading on the second pair (which are light gray with red stripes; the original pair is all black as above), they might as well be new.

The worst thing about sneakers, etc., in my opinion is that even expensive ones often start to get peeling of the sole away from the upper if they take even a minor stubbing or scrape in that area. These are still solid. No fabric tears either, even though the stuff their made of looks and feels like it would be kind of fragile.

They're not for everyone, I'm sure. If you need arch support, these aren't for you. But I like going barefoot, and these feel pretty much like going barefoot. The problem with actually going barefoot is that I have enough neuropathy that if something pokes me in the foot, I may not even notice until/unless it swells or gets infected. So I had to give it up, and then these came along.

They're advertised as "cross trainers." I haven't put them to that kind of hard use (e.g. trail running, road running, etc.). I just use them as everyday footwear. But they've already outlasted more expensive and less comfortable shoes.

I know they'll wear out eventually. But my initial hope was that they'd each last a year, and so far it looks like they'll both exceed that easily (I could be wrong -- they may suddenly go to shit on me -- but I've seen no signs of that).

I'm thinking of buying another pair or two soon and setting them aside for later, because I can't imagine going back to another shoe type.