An Anthology of Comfy Summer Shoes
Inspired by NYC streets and people with LIVES + taste + no time for blisters or bullshit.
As I’ve gotten older, my threshold for pain—or any other kind of nonsense—is pretty low: Tops I can’t figure out how to button, boots I need help getting off, dresses I trip on…AND, most importantly, summer shoes and sandals I have to break in.
Erin and I have been researching this story for a few weeks now, gathering up a tight edit of good-looking options for the season ahead. But yesterday, since I was running around Manhattan, I decided to pay attention to what real people were wearing in real time, on a stinking, unnaturally hot day, running up and down subway stairs, living their beautiful lives. ❤️
The first person I stopped (above) was getting off the R train w/me at Prince Street. When I asked about her shoes, which I KNEW on contact were vintage ‘90s Gucci, I asked her where they were from. “They were my mom’s!” she cooed. AHHHH! To have a pair of hand-me-down cocoa brown suede Gucci loafers like this. With no socks, no less!
THIS is the true pleasure of summer to me—wearing what you want/vintage Gucci, when you want to.
Above are some other people who kindly let me snap their shoes, including (from left to right) some classic Birkenstocks + stripes, someone who told me she’d clocked 15k steps in her studded Loeffler Randall slides (and then proudly showed me her pristine/blisterless bare feet!), and our friend Amanda Hesser wearing these sneaker-loafers she found at No. 6 Store in New York (THE tiny downtown emporium for comfy shoes).
And! Because I was paying attention to people’s shoes and not my phone, I realized I was sitting next to someone I knew on the subway, a filmmaker/producer named Cameo, who kindly let me grab a snap of her chic jellies (no blisters in sight, friends).
Hi Cameo! Let’s grab coffee this summer 😎. Below, evidence of comfy summer shoes at No. 6 Store on Centre Market Place.
The last thing I will add before we dive into the 22+ most comfortable pairs of summer shoes we found—plus a cheat-sheet of tips at the bottom for happy summer feet, too—is THIS: On one of my shopping research visits yesterday, I found a pair of buckled moccasins I fell hard for. When I tried to put them on, I could feel the hard leather of the high vamp digging into the prettiest top part of my foot where all my nice, SENSITIVE bones connect. “How’d you do?” one of the people working asked cheerfully. “Oof,” I said. “I think if I tried to walk to the cash register, these are going to give me a blister.” And this is what she said: “If you can put up with three or four hours of pain, they’re totally worth it!”
I cannot even get into this insanity, but I will say those adorable shoes did not make it into our edit. To anyone reading this who has triggering memories of limping to or from an event, asking strangers for band-aids after realizing the three you’d applied before you left the house were not enough—today’s ATA featurette is for YOU. ⬇️
