The concept of recovery footwear is so, so tempting should you spend a number of time in your feet, whether you’re currently training for a race or always working a double. Problem is, so most of the recovery shoes on the market are literally recovery which makes them loads less enticing when it’s not 75 and sunny.
Enter the Oofos Oocoozie Thermo Mule ($120, oofos.com), the most recent offering from the footwear giant that’s higher known for its feel-good flip-flops and slides. It guarantees the identical impact-blunting fit as its summery shoes, just in a design that’s just a little, uh, coozier. I’ve been wearing the identical beat-up pair of Ugg slippers as my post-run “recovery” shoes for the past 10 years, so I slipped on a sample pair of those mules to seek out out if there’s a real profit to the true deal.
Who these shoes are for
While “lively recovery” is having a moment within the fitness world, recovery shoes just like the Oocoozie mule should not only for athletes. Sure, runners, hikers, pickup basketball players, and folks who play other sports may benefit from a comfortable, supportive shoe, but so can folks with physically demanding jobs (say, nurses or construction staff) or problems with their feet, like plantar fasciitis.
That’s because Oofos shoes are designed to “cradle” your arches (which reduces pressure and distributes forces more evenly), put your heel and forefoot in the correct position for a more natural gait, and keep you more stable as you stride. All of this, the corporate says, helps you get better more quickly after an extended, tough day in your feet. While that is sort of hard to quantify, the American Podiatric Medical Association awarded the corporate’s vast line of shoes its seal of acceptance, which it gives to products “found to support good foot health.”
Christa Sgobba
Out of the box
Two things immediately stood out to me: One, these shoes are ridiculously light (which bodes well after a tough workout when you should exert as little effort as possible), and two, the ugly-cute vibe remains to be going strong. The mules look just a little bit like a garbage bag and a few marshmallows had a baby: They’re black, puffy (made with their Primaloft insulation), shiny, and quilted, and so they feel such as you’re not wearing much of anything in any respect. They in some way appear to be they go along with nothing and every part. Initially, I planned on only wearing these across the house, but the primary look intrigued me a lot— they be this chic?—that I knew I needed to take them out and about.
Fit and feel
A recovery shoe feel like stepping on a cloud, and I can report that the Oocoozie Thermo Mule definitely did. But not an amorphous one: There was a structure to the footbed that made my feet feel really supported and—dare I say it—cradled. The foam made for cozy strides, and the insulation kept me warm, despite the fact that the design leaves the backs of your ankles exposed.
