Sole Searching

Our friend and Good News Girl, Cynthia Salzman Mondell, asked me to write about how I feel about my travels with the Little Black Shoe. She's hard at work on a documentary film called Sole Sisters about women and their relationships with their shoes, and it makes sense that she'd inquire. I've said a lot so far about the shoes and how they perform and how my feet feel, but very little about any emotion they evoked.

How I feel is liberated. To travel for almost a month with a pair of sneakers and one pair of shoes is new for me. My niece once took a trip around the world with only a pair of flip-flops, but I have old feet with issues. This is the first trip I've taken in years with fewer than four pairs of shoes. Previous attempts to travel without sneakers have ended badly: Blisters, sore toes, aching feet, legs and ankles, and once, a broken foot.

The result of my exercise is not that in the future I will travel with one pair of shoes because I can, it's that if I travel with four pairs of shoes, one pair need not be sneakers. Big boxy sneakers suck up suitcase space even when stuffed with socks and vitamin jars. Merrell's Barefoot shoe is tiny, light, and wedgeable, leaving room for cute flats and a great pair of platform sandals.

I learned a fair amount about the LBS in our time together. I find them most comfortable for hikes and long walks with a medium sport sock. They're fine without socks for strolling, shopping, traveling, and driving. Socks keep them dry in the rain, warm when it's cold, and, surprisingly, cooler in steamy weather. Sponge them down if they get muddy and they'll look new again. Lightweight and compact enough to slip into your handbag to wear if your heels start feeling too high.

It's a good shoe and one I've enjoyed testing. I plan to take them on my next trip to push just a little harder and see what else they can do.