No, those aren’t my feet. Zebra Oasis
Taste is a difficult thing. Some people have it. Many people think they have it and some don’t.
And some people don’t care. They want the world to be saved and believe that all forms of fashion contribute to its demise.
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This makes shopping for clothes a difficult adventure. You may like the way something looks, but you know you are fickle. What if you decide you don’t like that something anymore and it ends up in a landfill? The guilt can be unbearable.
So I was momentarily transfixed when the makers of the Zebra Oasis shoe asked me to try their products.
A confession. I often wear shoes that stand out a bit. The kind that makes waiters in restaurants say “Nice shoes” and you’re not sure if they’re serious.
I buy my weird shoes online from sites like Asos and I really promise to grow one day. But not yet. Being an adult doesn’t seem to have done much for too many people.
Ergo, when I took a look at the simple, white Zebra Oasis shoes, they seemed a bit understated. Perfectly handsome in a kind of local state senator.
Still, Zebra Oasis has a claim and it’s fascinating. These shoes can be “completely detached by a single thread for 100% recycling”.
We’ll come back to that in a moment. First, a few other claimed attributes of these shoes. They appreciate “recycled CO2 foam soles, reducing existing CO2”.
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They also appreciate the “World’s 1st Flynit hemp upper, every foot fits and breathes, with no break-in pain.”
Plus, how about there’s no dye and they’re machine washable?
Was that enough to touch my tortured soul and inspire it to save the world? Not really. But I still wanted to try them out to see if they might have some more mundane redeeming features.
Now about them going their separate ways completely. Well, there’s a ring that separates the sole from the rest of the shoe, something I’ve never seen before.
Breaking them into parts makes them much more easily recyclable, the makers say.
But please, there is an important question here. How does it feel to wear them?
I’m not used to wearing white shoes. Any type of white shoes. So it was a first. Still, I admit they didn’t look too bad when I looked down. No one looked at me with disdain as I passed them on the street. It is something of a rarity.
But the overwhelming impression was one of overwhelming sweetness.
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The stuffing on these things was really plush. They are lightweight and make walking an exceptionally pleasant experience.
I have to tell you, I haven’t worn them outside that much yet, as we’ve had a deluge of downpours here in California lately. Yet, so far, they’ve treated different sidewalk surfaces and parking lots like they’re veterans.
I can’t attest to how long Zebra Oasis shoes will last any more than I can tell you how long the world will last.
I will tell you, however, that I will continue to wear these things. It could make me a better person.
We can hope.
