Water Footwear Guide
Water Shoes
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Water Footwear Guide
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| Home > Water Footwear > Water Shoes > Water Shoes - What to Get | Search Site |
Water Footwear
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Water Shoes
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| A typical Water Shoe - excellent for active watersports |
If you've read the Water Shoes article, you should have a good idea of why you need to have a pair of dedicated water shoes if you engage in active outdoor watersports. If you haven't read that article, you may wish to do so now!
So let's start looking at what brand/style of water shoe you might want to get, what features to look for and where to get them.
There are four good brands of water shoes I've come across in my educational voyage of learning about thse odd, yet handy, pair of shoes. My recommended place to buy these shoes is at Zappos, which is where I buy the bulk of my footwear anymore.(Why buy Footwear at Zappos?).
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Salomon Water Shoes - Salomon, in my own humble opinion, makes the best water shoes you'll find. Moreover, they have an entire line dedicated to just water shoes, allowing for a nice variety of styles. If in doubt about what to get, get a Salomon Water Shoe. They are the best! |
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Teva Water Shoes - Teva is best known for essentially starting the modern sandal craze. Initially, Teva sandals were absolutely miserable for water sports. However, they have recently come out with both nice sandals and water shoes specifically designed for water sports activities. And like all Teva products, their water shoes and water sandals are of excellent quality. |
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Keen Water Shoe/Sandals - Keen makes only water sandals. However, their style of water sandals is remarkably similar to a good quaility water shoe - in that it provides solid foot protection and excellent traction. |
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Columbia Water Shoes - Columbia, rather surprisingly, is not especially active in the water shoe market. What they do have is very nice and of good quality. However, they are lacking in styles and selection. Last time I checked, they only had 2 different styles of water shoes available. |
In addition to the four brands and styles of shoes I suggest above, Zappos does carry a few other brands (such as Bite). If you wish to scroll through the full selection of water shoes at Zappos, just follow these two links :
The following features should be found on any water shoe you get, no matter who makes it and where you get it from.
Toe Guard - This should be standard on any water shoe (after all, it is a shoe, not a sandal). However, there are a handful of water shoes out there that don't have a toe guard, so beware.
Leather : Just Say No! - Do you like leather? Too bad - you don't want it on your water shoe. Why? Leather holds and absorbs water - which not only makes the shoe heavy it also makes your foot cold too. Oh yeah, leather breaks down when it is constantly submerged in water and not properly dried out, too.
THICK Sole - This little feature is something all too often forgotten about. Any water shoe you buy MUST have a thick sole, not some sole that is like 3mm thick. The reason? Three reasons, actually. The first is to make sure that when you step on sharp rocks or over numerous smaller rocks, that the rocks aren't poking the bottom of your foot. A thick sole will prevent that from happening. And secondly, a thick sole is far, far more durable than a thin little thing. And lastly, a thick sole will have far better traction capabilities than a thin sole water shoe.
If you haven't figured it out by now, I really like Zappos, due to both their superb support, excellent prices and truly massive selection. However, there are other places where you can buy water shoes online, too. Listed below are some places you may wish to check out.
Teva
Teve, the manufacturer of Teva Sandals and Shoes, sells their products online through their website. The good news is that they carry the full line of Teva water shoes and sandals, obviously. The bad news is that the prices tend to be "full price", not the discounted one you find at many other online retailers. Still, if you can't find a particular style of Teva you want, the best place place to go will be the Teva Website.
Shoe Buy.com
I've never ordered anything through ShoeBuy, however they do have an excellent rating. They also have very similar return policies to Zappos as well, so I suspect they are a trusted and respected merchant.
Shoes.Com
Shoes.Com is another major retailer of shoes on the net. They seem to focus more on shoes, but they do have a small selection of water shoes/sandals available.
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