Chaco Paradox Sandal
April 28, 2010
Our readers know that I do not approve of stupid footwear, and by stupid footwear I mean anything ridiculously uncomfortable that does not serve a specific purpose, say, to look great at a party on New Year’s Eve. Such specific purposes do not apply to looking good in an airport while hiking 1/2 mile to the gate, making your legs look longer while hiking up a mountain, or evoking the pirate look for walking on the beach. All of those are honest-to-pete, seen-it-with-my-own-eyes examples, people. Stilettos in the airport. Platform flip flops on the mountain. Thigh high PIRATE BOOTS for walking on a beach trail in the Pacific Northwest. Pirate boots! The leather ones that come up to mid-thigh. With heels! I wish to go on record as saying that NO ONE looks good in this pirate boot trend (Halloween costumes excepted). You don’t look good, pirate-boot wearers. Just stop. It’s a dumb trend and you know it.
In all seriousness, though, there’s no reason that comfortable shoes can’t also look great. For evidence, I present the Chaco Paradox. I was skeptical at first, I admit, of these shoes. Why wear a shoe that is really a sandal? Or a sandal that is really a shoe? Well, I will tell you why – when you want to wear sandals but your feet are really beat up from being stuffed into rock climbing shoes at the crag or into cleats for playing Ultimate but you still want to wear your capris, or when you can’t find your socks and are late for work. Or when you finally get the chance to go kayaking on water that isn’t 33 degree instant death, or when you want to wander around on sharp rocks looking at tide pools without the accompanying trip to the emergency room. I greatly appreciate the Paradox for hiding my beat-up and unpainted toenails, but also for fitting and feeling like an ordinary shoe. I’m not saying I want to take it out running on the trail, but for kicking around at the crag or around town it’s great. Where the Paradox really shines, though, is the water environment. For kayaking, rafting, or even beachcombing, you’d be hard pressed to find anything that sheds water as well, stays put as firmly, and dries as quickly. True to Chaco form, the Paradox doesn’t get all stinky either. It’s a great full coverage sandal that is a bit more streamlined and sophisticated.
Chaco Z/1 Sandal
July 5, 2009
Yep, another one of those stories in which there is a lesson to be learned. The lesson is, as it so often has been in the past: read the directions! For years I thought I couldn’t wear Chaco sandals because they were always too tight. I could never even get my toe through the toe loop some Chaco models have. Rather than develop a complex about my tubby feet, I just wore other sandals, admiring Chacos from afar. That all changed last week when I tried the Z/1 sandal and actually read the adjustment directions conveniently printed on the box. Oh hey, you can just adjust the fit any way you want! Good grief – you’d think someone could have told me that earlier. Once adjusted, I was completely stoked with the Z/1s. They are super comfortable, and because they’re essentially held on your feet with a continuous loop of fabric, they don’t have any velcro or plastic parts to rub you raw. Well, the buckle is plastic but it’s on the top of the shoe so it doesn’t rub or get in the way. The Z/1 is a model without the toe loop, which is my preference, but if you like the toe loop you can, of course, get a model with that feature.
We’ve been having this insane summer of good weather up here, perfect for sandals, so the Z/1s have been a staple. They’re so comfortable and stable on your feet that you can wear them almost anywhere – a friend just wore them up a ridiculously steep mountain, but I don’t really recommend that. Aside from the occasional rock that worked its way under my foot, I thought the Z/1s were almost as comfortable as regular footwear, and I really need them because of the ridiculous sock tan-lines I have. I need the sandals to try to even that out! I wish these sandals came in a bike version, with clips on the underside. How cool would that be? They’re not elastic so you’d still get a somewhat stable shoe, and you wouldn’t get the bike socks tan lines. I dream of such a day. Anyhow, the straps on the Z/1s don’t have to be tight to keep the sandal where it belongs, and you can adjust the straps easily even while wearing them just by tugging on them a little bit. I see these sandals everywhere, there are tons of people wearing them and I sure see why! I even love the color of mine – same as in the picture above. Very cute, and there are many matchy-matchy options if you like that sort of thing. If you eschew fashion, you can always get basic black which I’m sure can transition from daytime to evening pretty easily, at least if you live in Alaska where black Chaco sandals count as formal wear. Definitely a winner, and I’m retiring my velcro-style sandals, or at least relegating them to fishing duty.
