At 62, I Found Comfy Shoes That Look Like Fashion
At 62, I found comfy shoes that finally look like fashion, not orthopedic
Six things the Lane gets right that comfortable shoes get wrong, from a woman who is not a fashion writer.
Caroline Richards · Customer · Nottinghamshire · 5 min read
Let me be plain about who is talking. I am Caroline, I am 62, I live in Nottinghamshire, and I have never once sat down to write about a pair of shoes in my life. What I have done is spend a good few years now choosing my shoes by one question only, which is whether my feet will forgive me by teatime. Fashion had rather stopped coming into it. So this is not a review. It is a woman who found a pair of shoes that are comfortable and actually look good, saying why.
The ones I am writing about are called the Lane, from Nottingham Boutique, a small boutique that has been quietly dressing women our age for a few years now. I first saw them on a woman my own age at the garden centre, and when the boutique later asked if they could put my letter up for others to read, I said yes, on the condition I could be completely honest in it.
They are one of those chunky trainers, the sort I have seen on my granddaughter. At our age. I can hear you, because I said the same to my friend Sue. Those will do my feet in, I thought. As it turns out, they were built as an orthopedic shoe. Read on.
Here is what a good few years of sore feet taught me. Comfortable shoes come in two piles. The frumpy pile, the wide velcro things that look like something the doctor prescribed, which are kind to your feet but add ten years the moment you put them on. And the fashion pile, the nice trainers and the smart little flats, which look lovely and leave you limping by lunchtime. I have owned plenty from both piles and never once had both things at the same time.
Comfortable and frumpy, or fashionable and crippling. Those were my two piles, and I had given up believing a shoe could be in neither.
The Lane is the first pair I have owned that is genuinely in neither pile, and having barely had them off since, I can tell you it comes down to six things.
The morning they arrived. I nearly sent the chunky things back on sight, then I put them on.
THEY LOOK LIKE FASHION, NOT LIKE AN ORTHOPEDIC SHOE
The chunky look I will deal with first, because it was my objection too. Here is the thing, though. Nobody looking at them would ever guess they were made for comfort. They look like the trainers half the country is wearing, with a bit of a platform sole, and I have had more compliments on them than on any shoe I have owned in years. Not one person has said they look like a comfort shoe, because they do not. That, at our age, is the part I had given up on.
The brown pair. They look like fashion, and no one guesses the rest.
My daughter asked where I got my trainers. She could not believe they were a comfort shoe. Nor could I, honestly.
Christine B., West BridgfordTHERE IS PROPER ARCH SUPPORT BUILT IN
Underneath the fashion there is a built-in arch support, the tri-arch sort, holding your foot the way it is meant to sit. That dull ache I used to get across the middle of my foot by the afternoon has simply gone. I did not quite believe a nice-looking trainer could do the job of the sensible shoes, but this one does, and my feet have said thank you every day since.
The arch support is the real thing. The ache I always had by mid-afternoon is gone, and I only wear the one shoe now.
Margaret E., SouthwellTHE TOE END IS WIDE, WITH ROOM FOR A BUNION
The front of the shoe is nice and roomy, not the mean narrow point that so many shoes come to. I have a bunion, as a lot of us do by now, and there is room for it here without any pinching or rubbing at all. It takes a wide foot as happily as a narrow one. For the first time in a long while I am not counting the minutes until I can take my shoes off.
Room for my bunion at last, no rubbing anywhere. I have wide feet and these are the first trainers that have not fought me.
Pauline H., ArnoldTHEY ARE CUSHIONED, AND LIGHTER THAN THEY LOOK
You would think a sole that chunky would weigh a ton. They do not. They are surprisingly light, with a soft cushioned sole that soaks up the pavement, so I can potter round the shops and the garden all day and my feet are none the wiser. That was the promise the frumpy shoes always made and rarely kept. These keep it.
On, and out the door. Cushioned enough for a whole day on my feet.
Light as anything and so well cushioned. I was on my feet all day at my grandson's sports day and paid no price for it.
Dorothy S., BeestonTHE CHUNKY SOLE GRIPS, AND GIVES A BIT OF HEIGHT WITHOUT A HEEL
The sole has a proper grippy tread, the non-slip sort, and I cannot tell you what a difference that makes on a wet path or a supermarket floor. I feel steady and sure-footed in a way I had quietly stopped feeling. And the little bit of platform gives me some height back, which is rather nice, without a heel to wobble on or to punish me for it. Steady and a touch taller, both at once.
The chunky non-slip sole. Steady underfoot, and a bit of height with no heel.
The grip on these makes me feel so much steadier out and about, and I will admit I like the little bit of extra height too.
Eileen T., NewarkTHREE COLOURS, AND THEY GO WITH EVERYTHING
Jeans and they are a shoe for the shops and the garden. Nicer trousers and they are perfectly good for a lunch or a day out. Same shoe, all week, and they come in three colours, so you can have the tan brown like mine or the black or the white. The sizing runs honestly from a 3 to an 8 and a half. I have the brown. I am already half thinking about the white for next summer.
By the door, ready for whatever the day turns out to be.
They go with everything I own, jeans or trousers. I wear them near enough every day now.
Maureen C., BinghamThe Lane, against the comfy shoes you have been buying
You can find a comfortable shoe for thirty-odd pounds almost anywhere. I know, because I have a cupboard full of them, most of them sensible and none of them nice. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.
Frumpy, and obviously an orthopedic shoe
Narrow toe that squeezes a bunion
Flat hard insole with no real support
Smooth sole that slips on a wet path
Flat and dowdy, or a heel that hurts
Looks like a fashionable chunky trainer
Wide toe box with room for a bunion
Built-in tri-arch support and cushioning
Chunky non-slip grip, steady underfoot
A bit of height with no heel to totter on
Mine, worn in and barely off my feet since.
About the price
The Lane is £34.95 at the moment. It was £70.00.
I will pass on what the boutique told me, which is that the popular colours and the middle sizes are the first to go, and once a size has gone it can be a wait for it to come back. Their words, not mine. What I can tell you from my side is that half price is usually where I start asking what is wrong with a thing, and I have found nothing wrong with these.
And I do not trust perfect scores, so I read the reviews before I ordered. Just over three hundred of them, sitting at 4.2 stars, which sounded like real women rather than robots, so I read on. The same six things I have just walked you through come up in them, over and over, in other women's words.
If you have spent years choosing between shoes that look nice and shoes you can actually walk in, and you would rather like a pair that is both, this is the pair I would put on your feet myself, while your size is still there. Stop dithering and go and have a look.
Caroline
LANE | STYLISH ORTHOPEDIC SHOE
- Chunky platform trainer that looks like fashion, not orthopedic
- Built-in tri-arch support
- Wide toe box, room for bunions and wide feet
- Cushioned, shock-absorbing sole, lighter than it looks
- Chunky non-slip grip outsole, steady underfoot
- A bit of added height with no heel
- Three colours, UK sizes 3 to 8.5
- Free UK delivery and 30 day returns
Popular colours and middle sizes go first.