Dagon Street

Before I go on I do have a bit of a confession, I have a bit of an obsession with shoes. I have lots of pairs of shoes. I think I have more shoes than my wife does at this point. So, any chance to get a new pair of oddball shoes is pretty exciting. With that being said, on with my discussion.

I got a pair of the Crocs Bistro clogs for class the other day. I’ve had some off brand Crocs before, that were pretty nice until the foam started to deteriorate and the shoes became a bit sloppy, but before that they were fairly comfortable. Frankly, I was tired of wearing leather boots into a kitchen in the middle of summer and wanted something a bit cooler to wear, and Crocs are sufficiently peculiar to make me happy.

The fit on these things is a little bit odd. Clogs nearly always feel like they are going to fall off of my feet. However, with the strap down, I can’t get the Bistro to go anywhere, which is pretty nice. The strap doesn’t really rest on my ankle, but hangs out waiting for its chance to be useful. The loose feeling didn’t take too long to get used to, maybe an hour, and after that my brain accepted that my shoes weren’t going anywhere I didn’t want them to.

The Bistro has an oddly patterned sole that is meant to be slip resistant, and so far it has performed like a champ. Granted, the kitchen I work in is probably cleaner than nearly any other professional kitchen out there, but the floor still gets wet and I’ve yet to feel my footing was compromised. The only place I felt myself slide a bit was on the ramp coming out of the walk-in cooler. But once stainless steel gets wet, you’re sliding no matter what you are wearing.

My biggest concern with the Bistro is the fact it is a completely closed toe clog, no vents at all. The closed toe is important because nothing brings down a day like spilling boiling milk right onto your exposed feet, but that also means your feet are encased in closed cell foam. I tend to be a fairly sweaty guy (I’m sure you wanted to know that), and so the plastic wrapped feet were definitely a concern. So far, however, the shoes haven’t proven to be unforgiving in terms of ventilation. On reviewer elsewhere said he’s socks were damp just sitting at the computer. If that’s the case, he must have SCARY sweaty feet, as I have not experienced anything like that.

I’m not sure where to place the comfort of these shoes. I spend most of my time outside of class in shoes that are the equivalent of being barefoot, so anything with a sole greater than a quarter inch feels a little weird. That, and the first day I wore them was the first full 10 hour day of class, which is a hard task for any shoe to master. My feet hurt that day, but I’m not sure it would have mattered much what I was wearing.

In the grand scheme of things, I think these were a worthwhile pair of shoes. They’re comfortable and keep me from falling on my ass. Plus they clean up with a hose, something my Doc Martens can’t claim.