The ‘D’ List looks at new things in the world of disability.
This time we’re looking for things to make summer 2019 special with summer shoes for wide/fat feet, for both men and women.
We’ve written about wide fit shoes in the past as immobility often leads to swollen feet, especially in summer. Finding cool/fashionable shoes for such a common problem is unbelievably difficult! However we can report that we’ve found two new sites that may be useful Seasalt and Vivo Barefoot .
Seasalt has an extensive range of summer sandals in both D & E width fitting. No EE or EEE unfortunately but they are attractive and have a good choice of colours – dark & light blue, red, floral, striped, mustard and tan.
Vivo Barefoot doesn’t supply wide fit shoes per se but they are designed to give a natural fit for toes and are therefore wider than most fashion shoes. They have collections for men, children and women, they are sustainably made in Portugal and there is a vegan collection. They say their shoes are of
‘Sustainable design…fit for purpose. And fit for the planet’.
By 2020 they want to use 90% sustainable material across the whole range. They’re so confident about the shoes they offer a 100 day trial. Pictured below the Primus Lite shoes for men and women are made from ‘PET plastic bottles recycled into a durable performance materials to create a lightweight and breathable vegan movement shoe’. The Primus Trail SG, is made of ‘recycled plastic bottles to construct a quick-draining and breathable shoe, featuring a lightweight stretchy ankle collar for unrestrained mobility….’. Similarly the Ababa Kids are handmade in Ethiopia, ’empowering makers, supporting local communities’ and they do make leather sandals such as the Kolhapuri sandal that also uses velcro straps for extra stretch. We love their environmentally sustainable philosophy and we’re going to get these on trial and will report back.
In addition to these Birkenstock is also worth a try as they tend to be wider than most shoes and sandals, the contoured footbed allows the foot to expand during the day and the adjustable straps help wider fit feet. They’re also a fashion favourite at present. These are their Arizona model with an upper made from ‘skin-friendly, hard-wearing synthetic material Birko-Flor®’. Inexpensive at £55 a pair.
Another choice for a cheaper (perhaps less sustainable), yet nonetheless fashionable are these from Evan’s where there’s a wide selection of sandals in an E & EEE width fitting. Unfortunately they are mainly synthetic material which can cause blisters on soft un-used feet.
That’s the round up for now and if you’ve found any other wide fit shoe companies please get in contact here. Next in the summer of 2019 we’re looking at Airport Accessibility and a new Accessible Tourism website. Let’s wait for the heatwave & keep reading????