Lems Shoes vs Flintstone Feet

My review of Lem’s shoes.

I recently received an email from Lems Shoes asking me how I have been enjoying the shoes I purchased recently. If you aren’t familiar, please check out their site Lems Shoes and see for yourself.

Boy oh boy, where do I start!

Simply saying I love them really doesn’t give an accurate impression of what finding these shoes means to me. When John Q Public says he loves some pair of shoes, everybody can be like “well good for him, he likes them, that’s nice dear”, but for me it is different.

As a general rule, I can’t wear any of the ordinary footwear that can be found in even the most extensive and elaborate shoe store. I’m the 1 in 500,000 guy with feet that just aren’t compatible with the lasts uses by any and all major shoe manufacturers. (Who by the way are in my opinion all a bunch of idiots).  A ‘last’ is the allegedly foot-shaped mold that a manufacturer uses to form the shape of their shoes, and if you ever get to see one, you’ll realize that there are very little consideration given to the skeletal structure of your foot.

From my first pair of shoes that my mother had to drive hours to a special store to buy back in the 80’s I have had a terrible relationship with shoes, and shoe shopping in general.  I’d rather go get a root canal than try and find a pair of shoes that ended up in between “crushing all your bones to dust” and “flopping around like some squeaker laden clown shoe”.  Rarely with any success.

If I did find a pair that didn’t immediately crush my feet, they were typically horrifyingly ugly.  Fast forward to my first discovery of minimalist shoes, and my first purchase of Vibram FiveFingers. A whole new world opened up before me. I discovered that there are people who made shoes and they actually care about how feet are actually supposed to work.

Queue biomechanics research marathon.

I didn’t hate shoes anymore, just ignorant shoe designers. What a time to be alive! Now where can I get some white collar dress shoes…hmmm. I couldn’t find any that weren’t custom made in Italy and looked like leather socks with wingtips glued on top…that won’t do.  But then after all my waiting and searching (and wearing black VFFs to trying to stay under the radar) I found Lems, and the glorious Nine2Five.  Here are some pics for you to bask in the glow as well.

But then I hit a problem, I couldn’t swallow the $125 pricetag.  So I hobbled along, quite literally, nurturing my parsimonious attitude.  Until a few months ago, I realized that I was just being a foolish scrooge. It’s not like that is an astronomical price for a pair of full grain leather oxfords.  In fact there are plenty of terrifyingly bad dress shoes that cost far more than that.  And so I realized my problem was just me being a miser. So I pulled the trigger on both barrels, I bought a pair of Nine2Fives and a second pair of Primal 2s.

And then I realized the magnitude of my mistake, why didn’t I order sooner.

Lems Shoes are simply amazing.  They consistently showed up in all my research for reliable, comfortable, anatomically compatible shoes.  If you could disguise a pair of your most comfortable house slippers inside a running shoe or a coffee leather oxford, then you would start to get close to how they feel.  They are incredibly comfortable shoes that you can wear with ordinary socks.  (I’m looking at you FiveFingers)

The Nine2Fives are light, and flexible, and provide a nice amount of groundfeel.  They appear to be very well constructed, and have shown no signs of premature wear. The same is true of the Primal 2s.  They are even lighter and very breathable thanks to their mesh-like material.

And now that you know all that, you’ll understand why when I say “I love these shoes”, you’ll understand how big of a deal it is for me.  It’s such a big deal, that I’m planning to buy 2 more pairs of Nine2Fives and a pair of the Boulder boots as well.

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