At a Moment's Notice....

My current favorite foot attire is the "slide!" I didn't think I could ever again call a shoe this casual and unstructured a favorite.  In fact, I wasn't sure I could ever wear a pair of these for anything more than a quick walk around the pool; there's no arch support, no orthotics, no steel shank through the bottom, no heel support,  well.....no anything other than a protection for the bottom of the foot.

"Slides 1" - Pencil, .8 black micron pen and Faber-Castille Indian ink on 300 series Strathmore mixed media paper.  Click on image to enlarge. 

Since the time when I was little, my preferred mode of foot attire has been "none!"  In fact, on a pre-school assessment of school readiness, one of the questions had to do with feet....(go figure...)  There was a picture of a child in the box.  She was sitting on a small stool with one sock and shoe on and one sock and shoe off and sitting on the floor next to her.  The interviewer then said, "This child is getting ready to go outside to play.  What does she need to do next""

My response was, "Take of that shoe and sock  (pointing to the shoe and sock ON the child's foot.)"  That response was marked "incorrect."  Only three and already impacted by "cultural norm."

"Slides 1" - Pencil, .8 black micron pen Faber-Castille Indian ink and FW acrylic ink on 300 series Strathmore mixed media paper.  Click on image to enlarge. 

Although these are easy to grab and go on a moment's notice, they are relatively difficult to find.  Almost all footwear that falls into this category has some kind of post that protrudes through the sole into the footbed, and attaches to some portion of the "shoe" that goes over the top part of the foot.  This protruding post is almost always designed to go between the first two toes. 

"Slides 1" - Pencil, .8 black micron pen Faber-Castille Indian ink and FW acrylic ink on 300 series Strathmore mixed media paper.  Click on image to enlarge. 

When we were in high school, that type of sandal was called a flip flop.  Of course the school dress code dictated that flip flops were NOT school attire, but they were fair game for most out-of-school events from May through mid-October.  Today thong-style footwear can be found almost everywhere that shoes are sold, including the grocery store.  They come in plastic, cloth, ribbon, fir,fake fir, molded tough-stuff, leather, strings of jewels and beads, and many other materials.

The lowly slide, however, continues to be challenging to find.  Hats-off to the Sketcher company for not only making slides, but offering a couple of different colors.  I have appreciated Nike's efforts, but it is Sketchers that have taken it to the non-sport step!  Bravo!!