Stepping out in plastic shoes

Plastic shoes and summer heat is not a combination that suggests itself.

Nevertheless, this summer brightly-coloured foam plastic clogs are expected to be a trendy accessory.
Boutique windows are glowing in the clogs’ orange, blue and pink colours. Large shoe chain stores also have put the easy-to-put-on shoes, also in glaring colours, into their summer stocks.
The advantages of the shoe during the warm-weather months are easy to see: “These are very light, comfortable summer shoes that I can slip on and off quickly,” said Silvia Stahlhut, who sells the shoes along with jewellery and clothes in a small boutique.
Apart from the comfort advantage, wearing the bright colours can place a cheerful accent on an otherwise ordinary day.
Contrary to most trends, the colourful foam plastic clogs are found not just in women’s fashion.
Among others, Hollywood stars Al Pacino and Jared Leto have been seen with the mules on their feet.
“I would wear them with long pants or with a pair of wide-leg shorts,” said Benjamin Kruemel, product manager for a shoe store chain.
Anyone used to flip-flops, which were hot last summer, will notice their feet feel a little strange in the clogs at first. Walking in foam plastic shoes doesn’t feel drastically different, but the knobby shoe bed causes a prickly feeling on the bottom of the foot and keeps the foot from sliding around in the shoe.
The shoes were originally designed to be non-slip boat shoes for sailors.
A closed variation of the shoe made of a similar plastic has long been a favourite style worn by doctors, farmers and gardeners.
Now helping them reach the mainstream is the current trend favouring loud colours.
Shoe store chain, Salamander, is also stocking the shoe in blue, white and red. Made by Romika of Trier, the shoes have slits instead of holes.
Designers suggest the shoes are more of a flash in the pan than a growing trend worth taking seriously. They say they are more suited as an accent or accessory that draws stares.
A reason for that might be that the joy of wearing them on a hot summer day can quickly give way to an unpleasant feeling of trickling sweat. This is something the manufacturers are trying to prevent.
The patented material is neither plastic nor rubber, according to Crocs, the original US maker of the shoe, and it absorbs no bacteria. Thus, the shoes don’t smell even after they are worn for a long time, Crocs says in its advertisement.
Johannes Gutwald, a dermatologist, recommends wearing the shoe only in certain situations such as at the beach or pool and in the evening – when it’s no longer so hot – as an accessory that fits the venue or occasion.
However, Gutwald said people with foot fungus are advised not to participate in this particular footwear trend.