Where can I get actually comfortable shoes?

i fucken HATE fashion because the options for women always prioritizes seduction and aesthetics before health and comfort.

i refuse to wear high heels as much as i can, and lately i've bought a pair of those expensive barefoot styled snickers. i'm pretty happy with them. they look good (which was really hard to find 'cause most look hideous) and are comfy. too expensive, though... but my health is worth every cent.

now when it comes to feminine looking shoes, even when they are not high heels, they are all terrible. i've been searching for comfortable and good looking options too, but it's mission impossible... when i find something vaguely similar to what i need, it's so expensive that i give up. i have bunions and i hate shoes that crush my fingers (further) together.

I only wear barefoot shoes. I refuse to deform my feet because of patriarchy. I have low volume feet that are actually narrow - moderate width. The vivo Primus lite fit well, but they're definitely very narrow.

If you have wide feet, you could try the joomra shoes on Amazon. They are $40.

I feel you on the struggle of finding a fashionable barefoot shoe. It's practically impossible. I think most of my barefoot shoes are semi ugly but I've just come to terms with it. I'm working on getting nicer shoes, but it's a hassle ordering online and returning them

I hate the shoe industry. Theyre like "women dont buy shoes that fit toes comfortably so we're not gonna make any". But hello, we can't buy something that you dont make! My queendom for a shoe that fits toes!

I've been really happy with my barefoot Lems Primal shoes, they have a roomy toebox and are just incredibly comfortable. I have narrow, more petite feet, and they fit like a dream. After wearing them, "normal" shoes feel so constricting and unnatural in comparison. They're versatile too, I do everything from working out to errands in mine.

i wear Vibrams, fuck the patriarchy (except they're sooooo expensive).

Try the tennis shoes where the bottom is made of traditional sneaker material and the rest is knit fabric.

Skechers make some and I've bought no-brand 1s from Amazon I was pleased with too.

I'm afraid I don't have anything constructive to reply with (though I absolutely do feel your pain: sturdy wide-footed Scotswoman here, hello) but I just had to say that the description in the last sentence of your third paragraph is absolute fucking GOLD. Thank you for the belly laughs. 😂😂😂

P.s. upon reflection, it depends what kind of shoes you're looking for. If it's smart shoes, I've done quite well recently with Hush Puppies (I used to think they were for old ladies but was pleasantly surprised when I went looking online - got a super cute pair in black patent with a cone heel and nice round toes). Another trick is to go one size up with narrower styles and use an insole/half insole with a heel grip if your feet are sliding around too much. I've just done that with a pair of almond-toed Dune boots and it's working well.

Vivo barefoot have dressy looking booties, but they are not wide at all.

Keens come in wide and extra wide and sometimes have casual looking booties (not just hiking boots), but nothing I would call dressy.

One more problem with barefoot shoes is that the sole is too thin to walk on hard surfaces a lot. If you are on concrete or asphalt for hours, there's not enough amortisation in barefoot shoes to prevent plantar fasciitis tendonitis, etc.

Rykas for $50? Our local store must be overcharging so much.

I don't know if you're the same way, but for me, most shoes aren't comfortable without adding insoles. The 3/4 insoles, at the very least, for arch support.

And in some shoes, my toes keep squishing forward - what helps with that is adding wool to the toe box. There's wool you can buy specifically for shoe padding. Dancers use them. There's also HikersWool. I just get some wool roving from my local fiber craft store.

A pair of shoes I got years ago that I wear almost all the time and need none of these extra things added is a pair of leather ankle boots made by Cobb Hill. I got them back when it was branded "Cobb Hill by New Balance". Now it's under the Rockport brand. So I don't know if the shoes are still the same quality. They're in a classic style that can be dressed up or down, but feel like sneakers.

So many shoes made for comfort are absolutely hideous. It's almost like shoe companies think people who want comfort want to wear clunky clown shoes. How about no? Why is it so hard to find shoes that both look nice and are comfortable? Surely there's a market for it? Even though they are capable of better, Cobb Hill makes a lot of clunkers, my boots are one of the only exceptions. 😆

My ultimate holy grail shoe that I haven't ever found yet is a shoe that looks dainty but is comfortable. My boots are nice and normal looking, but they ain't exactly dainty or suitable for very dressy occasions.

I have wide feet, and Nike running shoes, Teva sandals, and Ugg boots feel comfortable for me. There is no way to make them look fashionable, but if comfort is your main priority, and you spend a lot of time on your feet, then Nikes, Tevas, and Uggs are the way to go.

I've heard good things about Skechers, too.

I wear rykas tbh, they're 50$ but I can run miles in them without feeling a bit of shock, and the arch is just 👌 chefs kees

I wear Dr. schools Time Off sneakers. It has good arch support for $70 USD.

Anything fancy with heels is hard for me as I look for shoes with extra padding, open toe, and is block heeled.