Thanks for the cool rubber shoes, Cory!

Cory and his lovely family stayed with my family for a couple of weeks over the summer. The highlight of the visit was Cory and Alice's daughter Poesy, who is cute, smart, curious, and funny (just as you'd expect given her DNA). A dimmer, but still wonderful, highlight of their visit was a pair of shoes that Cory ordered online. They were too big for him so he told me I could keep them if they fit. I didn't know what they shoes looked like and for about two weeks the box sat unopened. When I did open the box, it was like the scene from Pulp Fiction when they lifted the lid on the box that contained the shining treasure.

Made out of Crocs-like rubber, the Native Unisex Jefferson Slip-On Sneakers are an obnoxious orange-red (they come in a less aggressive colors, too). Each shoe is molded from a single piece of rubber. The off-white sole is painted on. I put the shoes on, and have hardly taken them off since. They are supremely comfortable, waterproof, and unlike my Tom's shoes, they don't get stinky when I wear them without socks. I'd say they are the perfect airport shoe because they slip off and on so easily, but for me they are the perfect everything shoe. Also, they are easy to clean using one of my favorite cleaning products ever, the Magic Eraser!

Since I've been wearing them almost every day for the last six months, they are starting to show signs of wear -- the paint is rubbing off, and the rubber around the heel is wearing away. They are still perfectly serviceable, but I decided to go online and order another pair. To my delight, I found that Amazon is selling the Olympian Blue model for $11.96 a pair. Other colors are about $45 a pair, which is still a good price.

Native Unisex Jefferson Slip-On Sneakers

• [Stefan Jones]

  The reviews suggest the sizing is off . . . if anyone out there has tried these and normally wears a size 10.5 . . . what size did you find worked for you?

• [AwesomeRobot]

  Alright, how’s the sizing when compared to the staple Chuck Taylors? 

• [seer]

  to hell with leather, cotton, hemp or linen – let’s use more petroleum products while we still can!

  • [Mark_Frauenfelder]

    What is it like using a computer made from leather, cotton, hemp, and linen? Could you post a photo?

    • [seer]

      sure thing, but it’ll take a couple weeks for the fixer to ferment.

  • [Ernest Valdemar]

     Rubber is not a petroleum product.

    • [seer]

      if these were natural gum rubber they’d be great. unfortunately, they’re made of ethylene vinyl acetate.

• [Cory Doctorow]

  You’re welcome, Mark!

• [Eric S. Smith]

  Waterproof, yet thoroughly perforated?

  • [Freddie Freelance]

    The material is waterproof and doesn’t get sodden if wet, and the holes let water run out & air get in to dry your feet.

• [tpe123]

  Identical shoes seem to have popped up in a number of brand names that I mostly don’t recognize. They tend to be comfortable as can be if they fit. Which is the sticking point. Make sure you can send them back easily, just in case they don’t fit. The downside with this kind of shoe is that if they don’t fit your foot shape well enough, they seem resistant to conforming like leather and/or canvas uppers do. 

  As for the bitchy environmental concern, these are foam, a good deal of their volume is made up of *air*. There’s a good chance that these shoes use less petroleum than a comparable traditionally made shoe of rubber, canvas, and/or leather. Production of which *also* uses petroleum. 

• [Mr Mallon]

   ”I didn’t know what they shoes looked like and for about two weeks the box sat unopened”

  We have seen some of the stuff Cory wears and understand your fear.

• [Freddie Freelance]

  The shoes Cory left are wearing out; the obvious solution is invite Cory to visit again!

• [Bender]

  A visit of a couple of WEEKS? No offense to Cory’s family, but surely there must have been a guest house involved. 

  • [Antinous / Moderator]

    You must not live in a crowded city. In SF, we had one house guest that stayed for five months and we didn’t have an extra bedroom. The house guest even had a house guest for a couple of weeks.

• [rs]

  My daughter has a purple pair of these — the Jefferson style. They’re really great shoes, but the word on the street the last several months is that the company is in full-on self-destruct mode. No new orders, no communication. Stores clamoring for more stock just throw up their hands. An odd end, maybe, for a company with such a meteoric rise.