When it comes to buying sandals, it’s good to know more about your product. Things like the materials used, how those materials were obtained, etc. Not only is this a good practice when it comes to all your purchases, but also it can be beneficial and help you find the perfect product.
Common Materials
- Rubber: A very sturdy and reliable material that’s great for slides. It’s a natural material, it’s lightweight, waterproof, and very durable. This makes for a great shoe because you can wear them in all kinds of weather conditions, and they will last you a long time. With a material like rubber, you can also create any colored slide you want. You can find any color, ranging anywhere from red to khaki slides.
Even though rubber is durable, it can still get damaged, which is it’s most prominent disadvantage. It’s bendable, but it’s still soft, which makes it easy to cut or pierce, which could potentially ruin the shoe. Considering the pros of rubber slides though, it seems like they outweigh this con.
- Plastic: Definitely the cheapest material used to make sandals, but also the cheapest. While the cons of wearing plastic sandals usually outweigh the pros, there are in fact some pros. The most obvious one is the price. Since plastic sandals are so easy to produce in mass quantities, it’s extremely affordable. As they aren’t the best quality, they’re great for traveling or if you need to buy one in a crunch. In addition to their great prices, they’re also lightweight, waterproof, and great beach shoes.
The cons of buying plastic cons are numerous. Because they’re not good quality, they can fall apart very easily, so you end up having to buy several pairs. Along with the poor quality, they are also uncomfortable and give the wearer virtually no support or cushion.
- Leather: Leather is more commonly used in nicer, stylish sides, as opposed to those worn with athletic wear. It tends to be a higher quality material and can last for years. Even if your slides do begin to get worn down, it’s not a problem, as you can have it repaired easily.
Some disadvantages of leather are that it can look worn easily and they begin to stretch out when you wear them. Many consumers forget that leather stretches after a few wears, so be mindful of that when purchasing leather slides. Seeing where the leather came from is also a good practice. This way you can make sure the animal the leather came from was taken care of well.
- Cork: This is rarely used to make up an entire slide, instead, it’s commonly used to make the soles. Cork is great for numerous reasons. It’s a natural resource, it’s long-lasting, it’s great for walking for long periods of time, and it’s stylish. The comfort of the cork helps allow you to walk for much longer than you could on most other types of materials.
It seems like there aren’t too many cons for wearing cork shoes, but similarly to leather, be sure to find out how it was sourced. Cork is currently a hot commodity, so choosing faux cork over authentic cork would be advisable.
